RSS FeedGovernor-General should say “NO” to Harper
Tomorrow it is expected that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will ask Governor-General Michaelle Jean to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election. Harper will argue that his Conservative government no longer has the confidence of the House of Commons.
But according to some experts the Govenor General should refuse Harper’s request. Speaking to the National Post ;
Duff Conacher of the citizen advocacy group Democracy Watch:
Mr. Harper has absolutely no evidence to present to Ms. Jean that the Commons lacks confidence in the current government and should be dissolved.
She should say, “Demonstrate that the House of Commons doesn’t have confidence in the Conservative government.” The Governor-General should just turn the Prime Minister back and say, “No, I’m sorry, open the House and show.”
University of Ottawa historian Michael Behiels agrees and argues that Harper’s actions are in violation of the new fixed-elections law.
The law was designed to prevent what [...] Mr. Harper is now doing: using his position as Prime Minister to arbitrarily call an election at the most strategically advantageous time.
So what will the Governor-General do ??
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8 Responses to “Governor-General should say “NO” to Harper”
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Dude, law is soo cool.
“So what will the Governor-General do?”
The Governor-General will acquiesce, as he/she always does.
She’ll do exactly what everyone expects she will do – see you at the polls on the 14th of October.
The GG can say ‘no’ only in theory, and if she were to actually do this the entire foundation of our democracy would come crashing down. I wouldn’t hold out any hope for that.
Anyway the constitution sets out the powers of the PM and the GG to form a government and dissolve Parliament, and no law can supercede the constitution, so it may be true that he is breaking his own law but any attempt to enforce the law will eventually get knocked down by the Supreme Court, as it should.
The only thing Harper’s law really does is increase the political cost of calling an early election, and he’s obviously taken that calculation into account.
I agree with Duff Conacher on the GG saying prove your allegations that an election is necessary. Here is the link to my Blog post on the subject of Sept 4.
http://ken-chapman.blogspot.com/2008/09/harper-will-have-to-blow-smoke-at.html
There were calls for the GG to turn down the last election too, but it didn’t happen, so I expect highly unlikely. Still, each of these elections cost lots of money and we will probably wind up with a minority government again.
while i consider it unlikely that the gg will turn down harper’s election call, i hardly think it would be a full blown constitutional crisis, although of course that’s what it would be billed as.
what if she did? the conservatives will stamp their feet, the press will whip up some breathless stories both for and against this, but who can _do_ anything about it.
it’s up to the house, the full house, to deal with this, and what do you count the chances are of the opposition parties siding with harper et al? ianal but i think to effectively chastise the office of the gg would require a constitutional change (good luck with that).. although I guess they could chastise the person who is currently the gg, but i can’t fathom how (can they just fire her? if so, i expect she’d be ok afterwards…)
anywho, not likely, but i’d love to watch the fireworks that would happen if she did
d_c
The role of governor general is symbolic. According to convention she cannot refuse the PM’s request.