Stephen Harper prorogued parliament, leaving 35 bills on the order paper. That means there are 35 promises the government made that will go unactioned for at least 6 months.

I believe his primary reason was to avoid charges of contempt of parliament and lying to parliament. It was a cynical attempt to subvert the parliamentary process. His justification is a blatant pack of lies.

The Liberals need a leader with a spine who is willing to call an election immediately on resumption of the house. The Liberal's biggest problem is that they have been too wishy washy especially during their campaigns.

I didn't know that I would ever actually abhor anyone as much as I abhor Brian Mulroney and, unfortunately, I am so nauseated with that freak that I abhor the very name, Mulroney.  I can see that Harper's wife is not really like him and that his kids have hope, but Harper the Horrible is taking his masters in game theory to a new level of cynical snobbery.   Strangely, he and Obama are working well together.  This should make us all take a deep breath and back away slowly.  The world may explode.

I don't think 90% of Wondermembers agree on the Law of Gravity.

lol, too true,SLJudds...wonder when the rest will weigh in.

 Don`t forget he also gets of off having to release documents to a House of Commons committee that could implicate government members in War Crimes or at the very least gross neglect.

yah, and we all know that Harper's a game-playing sophomore-conscious boy of  a duffuss but what about the duffuss that keeps letting him get away with it?

That may be true!

Additionally, the KAIROS funding issue can't be addressed while the House is out, either.  My most cynical self thinks Harper and the Tar Sands supporters see an opportunity for the group to wither and die in the meantime (it could, so please consider supporting them: http://www.kairoscanada.org/).

My most hopeful self sees the faithful of all stripes (because KAIROS is supported by a large number of Canadian churchs of all theologies) will speak to their congregations and highlight how wrong the subversion of debate, and the democratic process generally is and ask the questions: Why is Prime Minister Harper doing this?  What is he afraid of?

this is a lousy political cheap play that has happened, but in the broader picture, it is very dangerous territory for Canada.  Canadians, by their relative wealth in the world, the social system and smug "we're not Americans" idea have gotten complacent. 
Until now, the politicians at least played politics and people ignored some of it because all was mostly well.  The politicians and leaders still struggled over whose vision was going to be best for Canada, and aimed to win people over.

This step by Harper takes advantage of our complacency, not to push forward with his goals for a better Canada, but to push forward his goals for a stronger Harper.  Apparently, Canadians have noticed... a bit....  and they are not too pleased.   Do they understand why this is a slippery parliamentary slope?  Do they understand how horrible it is for Canadians to be accountable for torturing people?  Do they understand how evil it is for a PM to whittle away our democratic impact and access to fair & clear information about our government?

This isn't just a silly pause while the Olympics run so Harper can avoid some questions.  This is bigger - He's creating a playing field where he can do what he wants, and say "Canadians don't care". 

Might be true in some households - its a not so rosy side-effect of a solid political & social state; but it isn't the ideal we hold to and rest in, and we elect people that we hope will keep those fires of Canadian Democratic & Social Values alive.  At least in Chretien, Clark, Trudeau, heck- even Mulroney - there was passion and some love for what is Canadian.  There was manipulation for sure, but careful, quieter, more polite manipulation inside the system.  Harper just sees our comfortable complacency as a contemptible springboard to Dictatorship.

Will we get up with placards and megaphones and tell him NO?  Just how comfortable are we in our armchairs?

 I will be there, on Jan 23 at 11am in Waterloo.

Who will be there, or at corresponding entries with  us.

When the whispering of yesterday has grown into a roar.

Cool Pinga. I will check to see if anything is in this area. I am in Jay Hill country, so who knows.