Angry in the Great White North

Parliament has been prorogued, and the opposition is in a huff about it:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has shut down Parliament for two months, killing a pesky inquiry into Afghan detainees, stalling government bills and allowing the Conservatives to take control of the Senate.

Mr. Harper called Governor-General Michaëlle Jean yesterday morning to ask her to give a Speech from the Throne on March 3 - delaying Parliament's return by 22 sitting days - and allowing the government to table a budget on March 4.

But the opposition is particularly angry that the government, through prorogation, is shutting down the parliamentary committee into the treatment of Afghan detainees. NDP Leader Jack Layton said a sitting Parliament is the best forum to discuss Canadians' concerns over the recession and jobs, and that prorogation creates a democratic deficit in addition to the current economic one.

"Having a period of time prior to the budget, where you put the government's feet to the fire and press them on key issues, is a very normal and expected process, especially in a minority Parliament," Mr. Layton said. "I think Mr. Harper is making the wrong decision."

If the Opposition is really that mad, they can vote down the government immediately after the session begins.   They can use the time between now and then going to the Canadian people and convincing them that an election is required in the spring, both to punish the Conservatives, and to form a new parliament.

I expect that none of this will happen.  The sound and fury over this parliamentary move will quickly die down, and the opposition will stew in sullen silence.  The news cycle will move on, past Afghanistan and the question of which Afghans were beating up on which Afghans, and to the Olympics, post-recession economics, and who knows what else.

For all we know, a scandal of some sort (a real one, I mean) will erupt just in time for parliament to resume sitting.

That's all speculation, but the one surety is that between now and ten, the Conservatives will achieve a slim plurality in the Senate:

[Spokesman Dimitri Soudas] added the government will file five vacancies in the Senate in the near future, providing the Conservatives with more seats than the Liberals in the Upper Chamber.

Now while the current sessions sits, Senate committees will remain in the control of the Liberals, a position of influence they will not deserve.  By proroguing and restarting, the Senate committees will be re-jigged and the Conservatives will control them, as per their numbers in the Senate.

That's important, and of course Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is furious...losing Liberal control of the Senate is another failure to add to his list of failures.

And yes, this move likely favours the Conservatives, but it has nothing to do with the non-issue of Afghan detainees (poll after poll shows Canadians have a very worldly and realistic view about this, and that is that of course Taliban prisoners have it rough...and that's not something most Canadians are overly concerned about).  It gives the Conservatives a chance to re-sync on the issues, alter priorities given that the economic recovery seems to be well and truly underway, and finally, craft bills that are designed to go through a Conservative-controlled Senate instead of a Liberal-controlled one.

These changes are important, and proroguing lets it happen.