Will Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down Parliament to avoid more embarrassing questions about the detainee scandal that is consuming all the talk in official Ottawa? Not sure, the move is highly possible and would be advantageous to the government but at this point I’ll put this down as more Liberal spin, although Liberal spin the Tories might want to listen to.
Why do I say Liberal spin? Well for now, mostly because the talking points laid out by Gloria Galloway in this Globe article are almost verbatim the reasons I was given by a senior Liberal elsewhere a few hours earlier.
- The government gets to shut the committee hearings into Afghan detainees
- Parliament would return in March, after the Olympics, rather than January 25th
- The Olympics would give the government lots of photo-ops
- As of January the Conservatives will outnumber Liberals in the Senate, proroguing Parliament would allow the Conservatives to take control of Senate committees and pass their crime and consumer safety bills without amendments from the un-elected upper body
There is one part of this plot that was floated to me that Galloway does not report, replacing Michaelle Jean before the House returns and allowing the new Governor General to shine in a Speech from the Throne. Jean was appointed in August of 2005 and took the office in September of 2005 so she is getting set for either replacement or reappointment in the coming year.
Who Jean would be replaced with was the subject of a Don Martin column last week, he doesn’t name names and neither will I simply because I don’t have a clue. Who in all honesty would have thought Michaelle Jean would have been picked back in the summer of 2005. I will agree that the next GG won’t be another CBC broadcaster, what’s to say it won’t be a private sector broadcaster though….I’m just saying my family could fill that house and the kids could sure use some extra play space.
If this rampant Hill rumour does come to fruition look for something to happen early in the New Year rather than just before Christmas when Canadians would rather talk about family than politics. The Senate vacancies fully open up on January 2nd, so keep an eye out for Monday January 4th.
Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. Follow Brian on Twitter to get the latest as it happens.
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Comments
I would choose Jean to be re appointed. I think she has done a remarkable job with grace. Why not. She shouldd not be ashamed of anything she has done there.
As far as a new GG goes I can easily see that the in house Journalist contact and golden boy Mikey Puffy, a.k.a. Senator Mike Duffy, will likely be the one to promote the CON-servative agenda and secret the ultorior motives from Mr. Harper.
But that's only my thoughts on the subject.
Except for the incompetent sale of historic public property, and the portrait scandal, and selfishly upstaging Prince Charles on Remembrance Day, and general megalomania that always sets in after they have been there for four years plus, etc etc.
If PM Harper can shut up the traitorous Liberals & NDP, I will vote Conservative for the first time.
Vanoc wunderkind John Furlong for GG
Frankly, I say a former Prime Minister, or cabinet minister from any of the Commonwealth countries. Why? Because the US is no longer in a position to handle the mantle of leadership of the free world. So, let's revert to the time before the 1956 Suez Crisis where Whitehall was the senior partner. But with one change: More clout exercised by the countries which are most successful, and are part of the Commonwealth, such as Canada, Australia, India.
New GG probably be an ex-military man as the conservatives seek to militarize the psyche of Canadians...:?~
General Hillier at your service...cause Don Cherry just won't do
Lets keep the GG she has proven a great asset to this country.If our parliamentarians showed the class act she shows we could all be proud Canadians She will be a tough act to follow.
Jean has been appointed for five years, and could not be removed without her consent. The nonchalance with which this column discusses shutting down Parliament for the second time in a year, presumably to avoid a Speaker's warrant and other preceived slights to the government's self-appointed right to govern without opposition, is quite frankly astonishing. What is happening to this country?
Keep GG Jean. She is well-liked and respected everywhere she travels and is how Canada should be displayed on the world stage. Not a stuffed-shirt businessman with an agenda please!
HAAHAHAHHA
Harper and Co have been caught with there hand in the Dubya Bush cookie jar. Everyone knows these guys are a bunch of closet fascist neo cons who believe in a stone age archaic religion thats incompatible with the modern world. We have seen what a disaster Evangelical Christians created of the US in the last 8 years and now HArper and co are trying to do the same here.
Unfortunately the Liberals are too incompetent to take advantage of the situation.
Oh well Harper and co. torture away in the name of jesus.
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