PM gave Jean pledges in prorogation crisis

This is hardly a surprise -- what it does highlight, though, is the the G-G had a choice. So it does matter who is G-G. It is not pure ceremony:

A constitutional scholar who advised Michaëlle Jean during the 2008 parliamentary crisis says Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave the Governor General certain commitments ahead of her decision to grant his request for prorogation.

The revelation by Peter Russell comes amid a sea of praise for Jean as she departed Rideau Hall this week following a five-year term as Governor General. But at the time of the crisis, many questioned her decision to grant Harper a reprieve from a House of Commons confidence vote that his minority Conservative government would almost certainly have lost.

Russell was among several of Canada's foremost constitutional experts summoned to Rideau Hall on Dec. 4, 2008 to advise Jean on whether she should grant the prime minister's request to shut down Parliament, though he didn't sit in on her private meeting with Harper.

In an interview aired Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Russell said Harper made at least two important commitments: that Parliament would return soon, and that his government would then produce a budget that could pass

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/10/01/harper-jean-prorogation.html#ixzz11DwREKHr