Ms.Glenna Hanley, Mr.Peter Hogg, Please Get Your Facts Straight

Ms. Hanley has published an article this morning which includes an interview with Peter Hogg, "Canada's leading scholar in constitutional law." In it, she asserts Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff pledged to abandon the practice of prorogation, should he become Prime Minister. Mr.Hogg takes the statement as truth and advises against it. However, Hanley's version of what Ignatieff said, is wrong.

Ignatieff is now pledging, if he becomes prime minister, to never prorogue Parliament.

Hogg said that's not a wise promise to make.

"It is quite normal to have several sessions of Parliament in the course of the life of a Parliament," the professor said.

"If Mr. Ignatieff were elected and had a majority and his government continued for four years, he might want to have more that one session. That would require prorogation."

What Ignatieff actually said.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he would never prorogue Parliament to avoid controversy if he became prime minister.

....telling reporters that while prorogation is a legitimate constitutional power, using it to avoid "tight spots" is completely unacceptable.

"To use it every time you're in a tight spot seems to me is a flagrant abuse of a constitutional power and that's why Canadians are angry about it," said Ignatieff. "So therefore, I take from this a commitment not to do the same thing, period."

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Tom Flanagan: "Everybody knows that parliament was prorogued to shut down the Afghan inquiry"

harper stooge {though he denies it, but c'mon} Tom Flanagan was one of the guests on today's segment of Power Panel, hosted by Evan Solomon. Soloman played a clip of stephen harper suggesting that the markets are unstable due to the fact, and get this, he only has a minority government!

He then asked the panel for their thoughts. {video at the second link} When it was Flanagan's turn, he dismissed harper's drivel, saying it didn't make sense to him, and the government's talking points don't have much credibility because "Everybody knows that parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry"

Tom then offers advice on how harper should proceed. He suggests harper turn over all appropriate documents in a timely manner, and cooperate with the opposition.

Just kidding. He says the prorogation was a highly defensible action and harper should blame the Liberals for everything.

On a related note, the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament has registered over 160,360 members as of 8:56 pm.

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harper by the numbers: shortest parliamentary sessions ~ least number of sitting days

That's some top notch accountability right there! According to the Winnipeg Free Press:

Average length of parliamentary sessions, by prime minister

• Pierre Trudeau 511 days

• Brian Mulroney 618 days

• Jean Chrétien 484 days

• Paul Martin* 421 days

• Stephen Harper 303 days

Average number of sitting days per session, by prime minister

• Pierre Trudeau 171 days

• Brian Mulroney 215 days

• Jean Chrétien 176 days

• Paul Martin* 159 days

• Stephen Harper 108 days

* Martin's one session ended in November 2005 when his government was defeated in a confidence vote.

Also, the Facebook group, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament had registered 123,300, members at the time of my posting.

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Liberals~Parliamentary Budget Officer will return to work while stephen harper cuts and runs

As stephen harper, the coward with dicktatorial tendencies focuses on subverting democracy, real Canadians have decided to get back to work.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff notified caucus members that they were expected to report for work on Jan. 25.

He told caucus members they can't let Prime Minister Stephen Harper get away with shutting down Parliament and stifling debate.

"We think there's lots of work to do even if the government doesn't," said one Liberal involved in the call.

The insider said Liberals are also open to continuing unofficial hearings into the treatment of Afghan detainees, provided all opposition parties work together to ensure the hearings don't devolve into "an overtly partisan event."

Adding lemons to haper's acido, is Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page. Page says there are no rules in place forbidding him from releasing the upcoming reports.

A parliamentary committee advised Mr. Page last year not to release reports during election campaigns, but there are no rules as to how the relatively new office should conduct itself during a prorogation.

As a result, Mr. Page devised his own policy. He will not release any reports on research requested by parliamentary committees or MPs. However, his larger studies conducted independently of such requests will be released.

“Our objective is to ensure parliamentarians have timely access to relevant analysis,” Mr. Page told The Globe and Mail. “The government has not provided their own estimates of the structural balance or the impact of aging demographics on federal finances. In this respect, we are not providing a critique, but adding to the analysis required to have a thoughtful debate about the fiscal planning environment when Parliament resumes.”

Page has been a thorn in harper's side since releasing the cost estimate for the Afghanistan war. The harper government predicted costs would run around $8 billion. Page's figure was closer to $18 billion.

That made stephen harper very angry. And when stephen gets angry, his true toryism emerges. Shutting down parliament {*twice*}, refusing to fund Page's office so he could continue his work as a diligent budget watchdog. But hey, what does one expect from someone with dicktatorial tendencies? He just can't help himself.

note ~ photo stolen copied from Steve V's site, who as I understand, stole copied it from Impolitical.

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