That's why today's National Post comparison of Premier McGinty's recent prorogation of the Ontario legislature to that of Prime Minister Harper is misleading.
Premier McGinty has majority government where a number of Ministers fairly recently resigned and no significant legislation is left unpassed. Ontario's prorogation ends a legislative session at a natural point.
Prime Minister Harper, by contrast, holding a minority government prorogued Parliament at a time where dozens of important bills were midway through process. Those bills, of course, were lost. Vigorous parliamentary debate, both in the House and committees, was taking place. A legislative session was closed down prematurely.
One can debate why Prime Minster Harper prorogued Parliament, but without question the action was different in nature and kind from that of Premier McGinty.
8 comments:
Thats BS. The ministers in Ontario resigned because of scandal.McGuinty did it to avoid dealing with them. That is the same reason given for Harper's move.
But what about the lost legislation? Moreover, Harper didn't have any Ministers go so he didn't need to rejig his cabinet.
Aside from the eHealth scandal, all the resignations I can think of are from Ministers who decided to resign so they could run for mayoral office. Did I miss anything?
Prorogation is always used for political purposes, McGuinty, Martin, and Chretien are no different.
Bob (let it be) Rae is the king.
Three times, once for four and a half months.
You forgot the biggest difference, Harper is Conservative and McGuinty is Liberal.
Conservatives wrong, Liberals right.
Brent;
Add to the e-health scandal the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) allegations and the untendered $7 billion wind turbine contract to name a couple.
James;
You are partly right about lost legislation but the primary reason given was the Afghan. detainee controversy.There are numerous quotes to support that.
brent:
you can also add the cash given to a T.O. riding just before a By-election and sitting on the Nortel Pension bailout until annother by-election.He knew Watson was leaving we all knew.
same use of same constitutional prorogatives.
Unfinished legislation carries over through a prorogation in Ontario, except for Private Member's Bills.
I don't see McGuinty using prorogation to avoid an Order of Parliament. Or a vote of non-confidence. That's part of what makes Harper's last two prorogations so wrong.
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