Brave Sir Stephen bravely ran away.....

I don't mind if they shut down parliment. I only hope they don't open it up again. Why should we pretend to live in a democracy when we clearly do not.

I suggest they close the Canadian parliament down for good. If we can get along without it for 2 months, maybe we can get along without them forever.

Peace, Love and good wishes for 2010!

No question Stevie Wonder Harper is doing some serious ducking here. Hearings on Afghan abuse, certain bills on the table and other items can go away while Harper can get ready for the photo op extravaganza that will be the Olympics while filling the empty Senate seats with empty suit Conservatives.

This is all quite embarrassing actually.....

Maybe Obama will shut down congress. Of course he wouldn't have to as congress is complicit and on the take, more corrupt than ever. Perhaps we can put Canadian parliament and U.S. congress on a garbage barge on the Hudson River where they belong.

Ha! Most Canadians don't give a fiddler's f*ck about what happens in Parliament, except in Quebec. I listened to a radio call-in show on Radio-Canada and one French language caller from Montreal lamented the demise of democracy in Canada during the Harper Governments. Other francophone callers were equally pissed off with our Federal Gov't, especially concerning recent rulings on language rights in Quebec.
Frankly, our government has been highjacked by Alberta Big Oil. I think that only the Bloc Quebecois speaks for what I believe in- gun control, and wrestling control of public policy from the banks and the oil industry. The other 3 parties are too cowardly to risk losing votes in Ontario and the West. Maybe if Quebec separates they will let us in the Maritime Provinces join them, since without Quebec Canada would only be a cheap version of Texas North, which is how Harper rules us.

On March 03 2010 I plan to be on the lawn in front of Parliament I hope many more will join me.

Oh Good, So do I get my taxes back then?

I paid for a full year of government, so if I am only getting 11 months worth, then I expect at least one month worth of my taxes back.

You can run, Harper, but you cant hide!! I expect the majority in Parliment to vote down the budget in a non confidence motion as a point of principal, and get rid of this fascist-lite government once and for all.

And special thanks to NDP leader Jack Layton, for propping up our Dear Little Dictator

But note what Slavoj Žižek says about the neoliberal ultras learning from China that efficient capitalism doesn´t need democracy any longer.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n22/slavoj-zizek/post-wall

Harper´s dismissal of parliament points to what we can expect in the final phase of the capitalist global experiment. And just look how the US Congress has virtually dismissed itself. Brave New World.

If Harper and other CONservatives want to show their faces at the Olympics in Vancouver and wave their patriot flag, they will be tailed by outraged Canadians at every turn. They will also be reminded that they were elected to govern, not to partake in cheap photo ops. Harper's shameless manipulation and spin is typical of that of a cold blooded tyrant. Many Canadians will remember his shenanigans.

Looks like there are some Canadians posting here so I would like to toss out the thought that the governments of the allied countries of UK, US, Canada and Australia, at the very least, are quite bold and more overt in their anti-democratic treatment of their citizens.

I've concluded that it is the mission and the mandate of most, if not all, governments to act in a manner that is contrary to the good of their people. We in the English speaking world thought it would not happen to us however, what the four powers named above have in common is that they've run out of smaller countries to overrun, steal natural resources from and destroy the native populations.

Our major powers are working in concert and have turned their efforts and resources toward the domination and ultimate control of their own citizens. We see it here in the US fairly often, you see it in Canada, news reports from UK and Australia.

Halfascism flourishes in the newly minted banana republic to El Norte of US, as well!

our counterparts in canada should have booted harper out
when he was on the ropes. now canada is sliding closer
to the fascism we have in the states. welcome to the
misery that follows.

The Toronto star article is wrong. The official opposition, the Liberal Party of Canada, is not furious - they are relieved. Now they have an excuse to drop key topics of conversation (see below), extend their fund-raising (they only recently paid-off debts from the last election) and re-position their leader (who has been sliding in the polls).

The hearing into Afghanistan, the bad-press from the recent climate summit, troubles with the RCMP, and the economy were combining to push the liberals into a corner where they would be forced to do or say something unpopular with the upper-end business class. Now, they can call Harper names in a general way without alienating the business base they need to play to in order to raise cash.

Of course, the Toronto Star is not really upset either - for the same reasons. :/

Hey dubet -
no doubt about it. As the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

This will cut down of my visits back to where I grew up in Alberta.

I can not help it but when I get there I tend to get into heated debates over Prime Minsiter Stephen Harper whom I consider a disaster for this country.

I noticed one thing in common. The harper supporters can not defend the man directly. Rather then debate the merits of his Policies and their impact on Canada it always becomes "But XXXX are worse..."

We fall into that same trap so many people do. Rather then look UP and aspire to improving ourselves and our country, we look down and as long as there one or two slobs worse of we are content.

Let's see...This is the second time in two years when the parliament is shut down. If I remember correctly, the last time, the Governor General (the Queen's representative) had just returned from some trip abroad, Stephen Harper met her on arrival, the GG agreed to suspend parliament, without talking to the opposition parties who were planning on a coalition government. This time he makes a phone call and the GG agrees to suspend parliament until after the Olympics... What's next? The GG gives pre-signed proclamations and Harper just gets to fill in the dates? And tell the MPs who show up that parliament is closed?

While it's easy to blame Stephen Harper, I guess he and his party MUST know that they can play the numbers game successfully during election time - that is, there ARE sufficient number of Canadians who would put up with such tactics in consideration of other policies of Harper with which they obviously agree. No wonder that the differences between the Liberal party and the Conservatives are not that great (including Michael Ignatieff's support for the Alberta tar sands operation). And when there are other parties such as the NDP and the Green Party who say they are different from both these parties, how come they never win? Not too different from the situation with the third party in the U.S. And when modest, but well-thought out electoral reforms are put on the ballot for a referendum (as in the British Columbia elections), half the voters do not bother to show up to vote - as it was prime hockey season? And so the show continues.