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Harper to seek parliament suspension

The fate of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government was on the line yesterday, with Harper expected to visit Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean at 9:30am to discuss an unprecedented political crisis that threatened to topple his Conservative party from power less than two months after he won re-election.

Jean, who is the representative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, holds a mostly ceremonial position. But it would be up to her to decide whether to grant any request Harper might make to suspend parliament. If parliament is not suspended, Harper will face a no confidence vote on Monday by the opposition, which he is likely to lose.

A Cabinet minister said Harper would probably ask Jean to suspend parliament until next month — giving him time to present a budget next month that includes a stimulus package. The opposition says Harper has no solid plan to help the economy.

Opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion said a suspension of parliament would only delay Harper’s inevitable defeat. Dion urged Jean in a letter on Wednesday to reject Harper’s request, arguing it would prolong the crisis and exacerbate the country’s economic difficulties.

Although no governor general has refused a request by the prime minister to temporarily suspend parliament, none has been asked to suspend parliament to delay an ouster vote when it was clear the government didn’t have the confidence of a majority of legislators.

“There is no precedent whatsoever in Canada and probably in the Commonwealth,” constitutional scholar and Queen’s University political scientist Ned Franks said. “We are in uncharted territory.”

If Jean refuses Harper’s request to suspend parliament, he could step down or wait to until he is defeated in Monday’s confidence vote, Franks said.

Former governor general Ed Schreyer said Jean shouldn’t allow Harper to suspend parliament to avoid a likely defeat.

“I’ll put it this way and I will make this a plainspoken sentence. Nothing should be done to aid and abet the evasion of submitting to the will of parliament,” Schreyer told the Globe and Mail of Toronto.

Schreyer served as governor general between 1979 and 1985. The governor general holds special powers to promote stability in times of emergency, but Schreyer didn’t think Harper’s situation was an emergency.

Jean was appointed to the job by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin in 2005.

Nelson Wiseman, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, said the governor general would likely grant a request from Harper to suspend parliament until next month because no governor general has refused a request to do so.

“If he asks and she says no, I think he needs to resign,” Wiseman said.

Harper, speaking in a televised address on Wednesday, condemned the opposition plan to gain power, calling the effort undemocratic.

Harper vowed to use “every legal means” to stop the legislative move to unseat his minority Conservative government next week and replace it with an opposition-led coalition.

The embattled Conservative leader was responding to three parties that have united against his handling of the Canadian economy, saying he has failed to deal with the global meltdown.

If the plan succeeds, it would be the first time that a Canadian government has been ousted in a confidence vote and replaced by an opposition coalition without an intervening election.
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