Monday, December 1, 2008

Mr. Harper's 2004 letter to then-Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson

In a 2004 letter Stephen Harper sought to become Prime Minister without an election.

Mr. Harper's 2004 letter to then-Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson requested that she turn to him if Paul Martin's newly elected government were defeated in the Commons. Harper wrote:


"We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority...".

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmm big difference between saying your going to do something in a letter; and actually doing it and ripping the country apart. They didn't proceed with it.

Kalloocci Code said...

Based on previous comment; so it's okay for Harper to threaten it and he would have turned it down if the GG had approved it. Are you kidding me? I want a party that is going to follow through and not just put stuff out there. As for ripping the country apart, the Liberals-NDP would be representing a majority of the country. At the end of the day we vote for the party through the MP’s and not the Prime Minister.

I just hate it when the facts get in the way of a good story. I don't remember this much alarm with the PC and the Alliance joined and then changed their platform back in 2003 without informing Canadians.

Come on Canadian’s we are not as ignorant to politics as the United States, we have access to way more information.

Anonymous said...

Harper's letter to the Governor General in 2004 was valid just as the request made by the Liberal-NDP coalition is valid today.

Clearly Mr. Harper has a bad case of selective memory. It's clear that he went to the GG this week and asked her to suspend Parliament because he wanted to save his hide. That's well within his rights to do.

What is really scary and should upset everyone in Canada is the fact that she allowed hime to do it.

This means a number of things, not the least of which is:

1) a precedent has been set that will allow future PMs to simply shut down the House whenever they face a confidence vote. Essentially allowing them to govern without support for up to a year.

2) Harper now has the ability to wage a propaganda battle against the opposition (who got more public support than he did on election night)

3) The democratic will of the House of Commons has been blocked by an unelected and appointed monarch.

Personally it scares the crap out of me and if it doesn't scare you then you're not paying attention.

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