Prorogation may prove beneficial for Canadian politics

By now, most Canadians with an inkling of political awareness know about Stephen Harper’s recent prorogation of Parliament.

You have seen or heard the righteous indignation oozing from the likes of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, or NDP leader Jack Layton.

You have read about how Canada is becoming a laughingstock internationally, a dysfunctional bastardization of the Westminster Parliamentary system somehow unable to have relinquished the archaic shackles of uninhibitated executive power as pretty much every other former British colony has managed to do.

Hell, you may have even read the bevy of articles our fair paper has printed on the subject. And you may have just been approached by someone recently, urging you to add your voice to the growing dissent around the country at only the latest in Stephen Harper’s long list of transgressions.

Just as intriguing as the uproar around prorogation of Parliament has been the amount of attention paid to how upset Canadians actually are about the whole ordeal. In a country rife with people usually reserved to feigned interest in the goings on in Ottawa (as long as taxpayer’s money is not being grossly mispent), needless to say, people have noticed. And spoken up about their disaproval.

If Facebook groups are any sort of measurement, which is yet to be determined, with over 200,000 members, the ‘against prorogation’ group grows mightier by the day.

Rallies are planned for this Saturday across the country, with our particular Winnipeg version beginning at 1 pm at the U of W, then 2 pm at the Leg. In short, Canadians seem to actually be taking a semi-active interest in what goes on (or these days, isn’t going on) in the hallowed halls of Parliament. No matter what your view on prorogation itself, rightly or wrongly the least we can say about it is that it has Canadians talking politics. Not about government mispending. Not about how American politics are more interesting. None of the usual inane banter applies.

What we have here is a genuine national discussion going on about one of our core political institutions, and how many Canadians are fed up with the abuse of power that prime ministers can legitimately wage against it.

For this reason alone, prorogation might have been a good idea, if not for the Harper Conservatives, then for Canadians in general.