Prorogued

The Governor General has granted Prime Minister Steven Harper’s request to prorogue Parliament.
It’s a six week paid holiday on top of the winter break for MP’s.

- the PR battle for public opinion will be in full mode

- the budget will be presented on January 26th when Parliament resumes

- Steven Harper is calling for co-operation with the opposition for the budget

He keeps saying co-operation is essential. I wonder if he got a constitutional lesson during his chat with the GG.

- How is PM going to reach out?
A reporter asks is he is sorry?  
He believes his party should lead by example, so no, he wants to deal with facts, he is not backing off, he says he addressed the opposition concerns within two days. He says trust building needs to be done and is blaming the opposition.
He keeps blaming the opposition, and the message I’m hearing is; I didn’t make this mess I made and it’s not my fault and I’m not going to apologize.

“The public is very frustrated by the current situation in Parliament and we are all responsible for it.”

“Today’s decision will give us an opportunity—and I’m talking about all the parties—to focus on the economy and work together.”  (NYT)

The royal we.
Oh. The traitors, the treasonists, the separtists? That royal we?  
He tried the fuzzy blue sweater routine before and people didn’t buy it.

Harper says he will be spending the 7 weeks working on the budget.

Jack Layton used the metaphor that The Conservative Party has put a lock on the door of Parliament to protect his job. And he is correct, thousands of Canadians will be losing their job during the hiatus, they would have anyway. I don’t know if Canadians believe any government can do much about the economic upheaval.  Layton says the opposition will reject the budget in January. Will the coalition hold?
Will the coalition ideas be incorporated into the government economic plan?

A vote was to have been held on the Finance Minister’s economic package December 1st. It was pushed back to December 8th.  Now the vote will be held on a budget January 27th, a day after a throne speech.

Dion is outside addressing a coalition rally, and again he is making reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons wait.

As an aside: What happened with the delay of Stephane Dion’s national air time speech last night? Why was the production quality so poor?
CTV has the details of that fiasco.

Dion: The Prime Minister of Canada has fled the Parliament of Canada. We respect the Governor General’s decision but do not respect the Prime Minister of Canada. Harper has wasted two months and he is asking Canadians to wait longer to see where he stands.
Asked: Can the coalition survive? Yes.
I want to see monumental change from Mr. Harper, without the coalition where would we be today, nothing Mr. Harper said today has changed our minds. We want a recovery plan, with correct figures, his own advisors have said that. These cannot be the basis of a budget that will restore confidence in the government.

So now MP’s wait to see what The Conservatives have to offer.
Send your MP a blue fuzzy sweater for Christmas.:^)