Maybe if you stuck food up your butt you would crap out your mouth

Things aren't working out so well for poor old Harpo. Apparently Canadians were paying closer attention than his brain-trust assured him we were and it turns out we aren't too keen on having our Parliament shut-down every time the Prime Minister doesn't feel like having to answer a question from the opposition. Constitutional or not, repeatedly proroguing Parliament to avoid criticism is cynical and undemocratic. Further, it is counter to the promises of accountability Canadians were given when they gave Stephen Harper the mandate to govern.

Sure, Harper isn't the first PM to prorogue, but he was elected at least in part because Canadians thought he was the kind of politician who had more than his own interest in mind. It turns out he's actually the kind of politician who would compromise almost any value in the name of achieving and maintaining power. Whether it is government accountability or budget deficits or appointing unelected senators it is clear, at least to me, that Harper places very little value in the promises he has made to Canadians, either that or he thinks we're idiots. Given his latest boneheaded move, maybe it's the latter.

If I wanted more evidence to show how little respect the Conservatives have for the intellect of the electorate, the research wouldn't be very difficult since it came in the mail today. My Member of Parliament, the creationist Minister of State for Science and Technology The Honourable Dr. (of chiropracty) Gary Goodyear sent me a leaflet asserting his Government's resolve to make our country safer by changing the law so criminals would serve longer, tougher sentences. There was an important piece of information missing though. What the Honorable Doctor forgot to mention was that the legislation the Government had in mind to reform the justice system had already been debated and passed by the House of Commons and was merely awaiting the rubber stamp of the Senate and Royal Assent before passing into law. That is, until the PM prorogued Parliament and killed the bill, along with every other bill before Parliament at the time of prorogation. When Parliament returns in the spring work on the the crime bill will have to start again at the beginning, setting the process back by months and delaying the Government's own plans to make Canada safer.

If it wasn't bad enough for the Conservatives that the Prime Minister threw all of their own legislation in the trash, recent polls show that the party would be lucky to even hold onto a minority if an election were held today. I have to wonder how many more times Harper can ruin his party's chances at a majority before they get rid of him.