Prorogue = Martial Law?

will this be the equivalent of declaring a state of parliamentary Martial Law?

No.

It is as close to Canada being run by a dictator if Harper's prorogue request gets approved.

OK … so why not? We're being asked to sit idly by while Steve figures out ways to tighten his grip on Canadian parliament?

Give me a break … you might as well send in the tanks now.

Thanks Skinny!

Fascism is the term that actually comes to mind, but dictator works too.

Really? proroguing until the end of January is the same thing as military rule with curfews, suspension of habeas corpus, and justice by military tribunals? Give me a break.

Hi mouse:

It may as well be. Without a functional government, we live in a dictatorship. I'm glad you find that acceptable, but I don't. Nor does 62% of the Canadian population.

Now … before we go further into the technical definition of martial law, I'm curious to know: if you voted Conservative, WHY did you vote Conservative? Would you vote again given what's happening in Parliament today?

Hi Mouse,

Your other comment was deleted. Please watch your language, but please feel free to repost if you like.

I voted NDP and I support the coalition. But progration is *not* “martial law”. Throwing around terms like martial law is the same kind of irresponsible tactics the Conservatives are using to try to cling to power. You should be embarrassed to make such ridiculous comparisons.

Fair enough … I appreciate what you're saying. What would you call it?

The move to form a coalition to overturn an unpopular prime minister it is completely justified, given the fact that Mr. Harper is not ready to take the fight against the real economical issues. Mr. Harper wants to impose his limited understanding of the economical crisis by helping again the rich and ignoring the poor.

You must work for a liberal backbencher… I agree our elected PM made a political error trying to eliminate funding to the other parties. This, however, simply presented the opposition with a great opportunity to capitalize on such a blunder and to now put the entire country in a state of great political deadlock and crisis. Is an economic one not enough? PM Harper definately has flaws but do remember that in the last election a MAJORITY of CANADIANS OVERWHELMINGLY VOTED AGAINST DION's CARBON TAX and LACK of LEADERSHIP. I won't use the terms Socialists nor separatists but to you also need to be fair and balanced. Without the Bloc's tacit support the Liberals and NDP represent a very small number of seats. If the Bloc's sole purpose is to promote their own aims then how representative are they of all Canada? I fear replacing the current gov't with a shaky coalition (of 3 distict parties, political agendas etc) is not going to help any of us now. Watch our dollar tank, the car companies go under and the TSE be in unchartered territory. All because the Liberals want power at any costs!!? I do agree with you that the truly sad part of all this is that we “everyday” Canadians (the great silent majority) are hard pressed to get involved in anything and our collective apathy has put us into such as dire predicament.

Yeah … we're all a little emotional these days aren't we? I'm always pleased to read the latest doomsday scenarios from those opposed to a coalition. I'll admit to being severe with my own headline, but at least I pose it as a question as opposed to an absolute.

But Tom, I've got to challenge you on the array of lies that you've been kind enough to remind us of. With a little perseverance, I'm hoping that all Canadians will appreciate that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are no longer capable of being honest with Canadians. These lies are essential to Stephen Harper's pursuit of power, regardless of the repercussions.

For example, let's look at the way Conservatives are playing with market numbers. Straight from the floor of the Conservative fear factory – the only thing they seem capable of manufacturing – we get 'the response to political instability'. Last Monday, the TSE DID experience one of its biggest drops ever, but so too did the DOW and most Asian markets. Were they ALL feeling sympathy for the Canadian state of political 'instability'? Let's not flatter ourselves, OK?

And if I'm wrong and the world was shedding an economic tear for Canada, then lets look at ALL of the previous drops that occurred between October 14 and last Monday. That's a lot of down days. Does that mean the business world hates Stephen Harper? No. It just means we're all being swept up in global economic gyrations that we can either try to avoid (which is what the Conservatives are trying to do) or we can steel ourselves to the environment and do our best to protect Canadian jobs and our livelihood, ideas which were absent from the Jim Flaherty's 'economic' statement and which are abundant with the Coalition proposal.

And if the car companies go under, it'll have nothing to do with what happens in Canada, because the greed and entitlement goees straight to the top of these AMERICAN-owned companies. If we did something wise, like invest in Canadian-owned companies (eg. the ZENN car), we'd be substantially more independent of decisions made outside this country. Investing in sinking ships is not a wise thing to do, but I'm sure even the Coalition will be drawn into the follies of Ford, GM and Chrysler.

Most importantly, we do NOT have a seat at the Obama table. The Conservatives shot themselves in the feet when they stabbed Obama in the back with their play of partisan politics last summer as they released a confidential comment from the Obama camp that they would not reopen NAFTA, despite their promises to the American public. Obama will never trust the Conservatives again and they represent that worst sense of me-first ideology that Obama fought against (but I concede still kind of represents, based on his latest appointments).

A Canadian Coalition will be much better suited to negotiate arrangements like NAFTA and car bailouts (if they happen) because the ideologies will be more compatible. We can either be on the outside, weathering the storm, or we can align ourselves more closely with a Democratic US. Which would you prefer?

You also state: “a MAJORITY of CANADIANS OVERWHELMINGLY VOTED AGAINST DION's CARBON TAX and LACK of LEADERSHIP”. From a strict numerical perspective, this is only half true. Yes, a large percentage of Canadians DIDN'T vote for Liberals, but more Canadians than ever voted for the NDP and the Greens, splitting the vote and forcing the Liberals to finally acknowledge that there are other progressive parties out there. If you add up the numbers, the Greens should have about 35 seats, but they have none. Where's the justice in that?

More importantly, I can twist the results the same way you did. More than 62% of Canadians voted AGAINST Stephen Harper and all of the opposition parties had some kind of carbon tax or environmental component to their platform, whereas the Conservatives offered Canadians … NOTHING. Using this logic, 62% of Canadians DEMANDED some kind of carbon cap or tax and there's hope that they'll finally get one.

The bottom line is this: since when does 62% NOT represent a majority? Tell me. I'm keen on knowing how that math works out.

Conservatives seem to feel a sense of entitlement, despite the FACT that less than 38% of Canadians voted for them. With that 'mandate', the Conservatives did nothing that they promised they would during the election and went on the attack of all political parties, blindly thinking that the Opposition was too soft-spined to resist their overbearing demeanour.

Finally (sorry about the long note), you speak of the Bloc. These people are not minions of Satan. They are people of Canada. The Conservatives are doing themselves a great disservice by attacking people they once sought as allies. YES. In 2000, the Alliance Party, lead by Stockwell Day, a member of Stephen Harper's cabinet, made a deal with the Bloc.

And Stephen Harper HIMSELF is all too quick to forget that he too sought out a deal with the 'socialists' and 'separatists' in order to topple the Liberals in 2004. Had both parties realized just how evil the Conservatives were – and still are – I doubt we would have had 3 elections over the last 4 years.

It's unlikely that the people of Quebec feel very good about the Conservatives right now, given all the mud being flung at them, but I could be wrong.

In conclusion I, like millions of other Canadians, feel that Stephen Harper has brought the Conservative Party of Canada to ruin by his lust for power and his efforts to retain his lock on leadership and Canada. His lies are embarassing the nation and our stature on the global stage.

I've already stated in previous articles that there is one solution that he could bring to the House that would erase all of the nonsense we've had to suffer over the last few weeks: Proportional Representation. It would redeem him, it would redeem the Conservative Party of Canada and it would go a long way to pushing Canada into the 20th century (we're still nowhere near the 21st century).

What do you think?