Holy Cow! Canadian Parliament Suspended.... LINK

[Blackhatjack]

Just to the North there is a full-fledged crisis raging to oust the Stephen Harper Government, and after a no-confidence vote was scheduled to be held in Parliament on Monday Harper has moved to suspend Parliament until Jan 26, 2009.

We should be paying attention ....

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Crisis_torn_Canada_suspends_parliam_12042008.html

"Canada's crisis-torn parliament was suspended Thursday in a move which helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper block an opposition bid to topple his government and take over without fresh elections.

Acting head of state, Governor General Michaelle Jean, agreed to Harper's demand to suspend the two-week old assembly during two hours of crisis talks.

"On my advice, the governor-general has agreed to prorogue parliament," Harper said, after a week of turmoil when three opposition parties banded together to oust his new government.

The Liberal opposition led by Stephane Dion has spearheaded the moves to topple the Conservative government, accusing Harper of failing to shore up the plunging economy in the Group of Eight nation.

The opposition had scheduled a parliamentary vote of no-confidence on Monday, leaving Harper fighting for his survival just seven weeks after being re-elected at the head of a minority government in snap elections.

But Harper vowed Thursday: "When parliament resumes on January 26, the first order of business will be the presentation of a federal budget."

MORE

[Occam Bandage]

1. For everyone who insists that America would be better off with a Parliamentary government:

No. We wouldn't.

[leftstreet]

2. Yes, why have 5 different ideas when you can boil it down to 2 n/t

[Occam Bandage]

3. Yes, why be able to directly elect leaders

when instead they can be chosen from a party slate, and then spend weeks bickering and deal-making in closed rooms, all before watching the whole thing collapse?

[leftstreet]

5. LOL you just described our own Congress n/t

[Occam Bandage]

6. A bill failing is not quite the same as a Parliament coalition failing.

[Spazito]

14. A coalition was formed, it didn't fail, the minority government has failed the people...

ergo the "loss of confidence" vote the POS harper desperately worked to delay.

[Spazito]

13. Yeah, and then let them reign terror on their own country for 4 years...

without ANY possibility of removing them aka bush. I'll take my less than perfect system over the US one, thanks anyway. Your President is not held accountable at any time whereas our Prime Minister is held to account and must be answerable during Question Period every day Parliament is in session. We have the constitutionally granted right, via our MPs, to, at any time, remove the government if they lose the confidence of the "House" aka the people and this is what is happening now. It has been delayed until after Christmas because our bush wannabe pulled a chickenshit stunt and won a 'hollow' victory but we retain the right to turf their asses out if they go against the will of the people.

[Lautremont]

9. If you did, you could have been rid of Bush by late 2005.

It's hardly a perfect system, obviously, but your vote isn't going to some far-off and unapproachable Presidential candidate you'll never meet, but to an MP who lives in your area and represents it in Ottawa. The whole process seems a lot more immediate and accessible to me - but it's what I'm used to, and largely a matter of taste, I guess.

[Yukari Yakumo]

11. But Clinton would have been gone in '94. {nt}

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. We also would have had Democratic presidents for 40 years. (nt)

[valerief]

4. Parliament should show up and vote anyway. nt

[eshfemme]

7. Holy shit! WTF?

Wow... I didn't even know it was possible to do something like that.

[Captain Hilts]

8. I lived in Moscow in '93 when Boris Yeltsin did this.....nt

[One Taste]

10. hey guys...........

[Blackhatjack]

12. So what happens in the event of a national emergency occurring before Jan 26?

Wouldn't this action trigger events to occur which might bring Parliament back into session?