Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bob Rae 3. Stephen Harper 2.

Bob Rae has finally found something that he is better at than the PM. While he was Premier of Ontario he prorogued more times than Stephen Harper has as PM.


From the Toronto Sun:

As premier, he prorogued this Legislature not once, not twice — but three times. And for much longer than Harper has prorogued the federal Parliament.

Rae’s NDP won power Sept. 6, 1990. On Dec. 19, 1991, Rae prorogued the House. They didn’t come back until April 6, 1992. He then prorogued again, Dec. 10, 1992 — and didn’t come back until April 13, 1993.

By 1994, his government had run out of steam. They were running double-digit deficits and he’d doubled the debt. Some of his experimental policies proved laughable at best and disastrous at worst.

Limping badly, he prorogued for the third time on Dec. 9, 1994. The House did not sit again until the legislature was dissolved April 28, 1995.

Rae didn’t even bring in a budget that year.

For four-and-a-half months, this province had no sitting Legislature.

Was there a grass-roots uprising of self-righteous people decrying Rae for ending democracy?


Like you didn't expect that a NDP Liberal would be such a hypocrite on prorogation to try to advance their own cause. Right.

For the record the 2008 prorogue was only for 5 sitting days, and the one that starts tomorrow will be for 22 (Hunter has it at 17). If you want to compare the actual number of calendar days, each of Rae's lasted about 4 months while with the PM the first was a little over 1 month and the current one also lasting a little over 1 month in total. Oh and both times at the end of the prorogation there was a budget produced.

Ha!


Sandy has a post up on the same subject.

35 comments:

Unknown said...

Funny how the CBC "reporters" missed this little tid bit isn't it.

Ardvark said...

I read a comment at Sandy's that said Bob Rae was on CTV's Question Period today and was confronted by this little bit of prorogation trivia and tried to squirm his way out.

Fay said...

Rick Dykstra held Rae's feet to the fire. Craig Oliver gave Bob Rae a free pass.
MSM and National Press gallery working 24/7 to defeat the Stephen Harper Government.

Ardvark said...

If you total up the months for both Bob Rae and the PM, Rae prorogued for about 1 full year vs about 3 months for the PM.

Maybe Bob Rae will sing a song about that!

jad said...

I believe the PM also prorogued Parliament back in September 2007, although only for a month, but that would actually make 3 times.

Anonymous said...

The Toronto Sun article is a piece of yellow journalism.

Majority governments regularly prorogue at the end of a legislative session. However, the current situation involves a minority government proroguing to avoid confidence votes and parliamentary motions.

Stephen Harper is in contempt of Parliament. Bob Rae was not.

wilson said...

You are right jad.
why have the media and the opps not pointed out the prorogation in 2007?
Doesn't fit their agenda?

wilson said...

'proroguing to avoid confidence votes and parliamentary motions'

and the chicken sh** Liberals hide in the hallways to avoid confidence votes,
offer cabinet seats to floor crossers
or just ignore them (martin).

We do not need any lectures from Adscam Liberals.
This was a media driven bullcrap issue, as retaliation for a PM that is at war with the media.
the opps just went for the ride.

Anonymous said...

TangoJuliette sez:

Jad: what you claim to believe, is not a fact, doesn't matter. So,reality remains trump: STILL Boobray 3 Harpooner 2.

And howzabout that other NDP yutz, Comerade Taliban Jack?

Saturday, on Parliament Hill, Jack failed miserably as he attempted to channel Right Wing Republican Hero, Ronnie Regan's stand at the Berlin Wall, 12 June 1987: "Mister Gorbachev, TEAR down this wall!" Ron thundered.

Jack, tried to draw some sort of mad fruit-fly parallell between a Canadian Constitutionally-based act of prorogation, and the totalitarian left's creation, the Berlin Wall Regan railed against, which the totalitarian commies loved to call: The Anti Fascict Protective Barrier.

Jack-o me whack-o: One of these things is NOT AT ALL like the other.

Hence: Jack:FAIL. Bob: FAIL. Iggy and his demented minions: FAIL. our national broadcaster [brutally over funded by unwilling taxpayers]: FAIL.
This idiotic faux-outrage, opposition manufactured, compliant media driven 'children's crusade': FAIL.

Though one young girl, perhaps grade 5, 6, 7, spoke like a robot, a robot well-programmed at home or at school. I'd like to believe that she got this at homem and I'm good with that.

But we shall all rue the day that this brainwashing occurs in our public classrooms.

One of the other teen patsies put up on air, Toot. Fruit. Root. some name like that. Looks like mom still does his laundry, cooking and budgetting for him, Dad pays all the bills - or vice versa - and here's this twerp, with the nation at war, handling a natural disaster of huge scale, clawing out of a global wide financial meltdown, and this parrotting SnotNose, on puppetmaster CBC nationwide, is telling the Prime Minister how to run the country.

please!

tj

t.e. & o.e.

THE OLD FELLOW said...

Is't it nice Harper following in Rays foot steps. I'm quite sure Harper will and can do much better.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Rae would make a good Tory!

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo Tango Juliette great rant! Jacko missed the part where The Late Great Ronnie Reagan was a swooping Eagle, where as Jacko is only a moth "battin' his brains out" on the brilliance that is our PM Harper.
Cheers Bubba

Calgary Junkie said...

With nothing substantial to do, and no important decisions to make, the Libs are in their comfort zone. They can show all their faux outrage, spew their over-the-top rhetoric, Iggy can tour around preaching to the converted, and next week they will stage their pretend work in the empty House.

But obviously, this all comes to a screeching halt when Flahetry delivers his budget. At which point, Lib MPs will have to make some very tough decisions. And all their options have huge downsides.

Right now, this Lib movie, with its cast of msm supporting actors, is pretty boring. Unfortunately, there's no fast-forward button. So us junkies will just have to sit through another five weeks of tedium.

wilson said...

Consequences,
what are the consequences to rallying Canadians to speak out against [.anything.]?

The antiCoalition of Losers rallies likely played a role in the GGs decision to prorogue.

imo, these rallies will open the eyes of many,
Canadians have woken up again (a very good thing)
What will all these Facebookies and unions and special interest groups think when:
Mr Iffy will NOT support Dipper legislation on limiting powers of PM;
when Mr Iffy says getting Canada thru a recovery is
'not my problem';
when LPC MPs hide in hallways to avoid votes of confidence....

Mr Iffy took the position that getting Canada thru the recession was 'not his problem'
and now seeing Canada thru a recovery is 'not his problem'...
what exactly is Mr Iffy in Parliament for then,
45 minutes of taking shots the government?

Calgary Junkie said...

when LPC MPs hide in hallways to avoid votes of confidence....

Yah. So how does Iggy deal with that very real possibility ? He can't. He's too weak. He has no
way to force his will on them.

The Lib MPs only put up with Iggy because the alternative of dumping him is way too messy. With Iggy's leadership numbers way below the LPC's polling numbers, the Lib MPs won't need him or want him at election time.

Their re-election will depend on the resilient Liberal brand, their constituency record, and their campaigning abilities. Rookie Iggy, on his first national campaign, against three pros, is a potential disaster to the re-election prospects of these MPs.

The_Iceman said...

That's awesome! To be fair, it would have strongly benefitted the Province of Ontario had Bobby shut down Parliament after his election and left it closed for 4 years. Ontario would have been better off with no government than a NDP one.

Orville said...

From this article in the Globe And Mail
"A crowd of about 100 stood outside the legislature in Halifax"
"In Edmonton, about 250 people"
"In Montreal, hundreds also stood in a downtown public square"
It is safe to assume that numbers are worse in other cities in Canada or they would report them.
To think if anything these figures are inflated, what a dismal turnout for this big rally promoted by the partisan pundits in the media.
Since the CBC took this demonstration on as a personal crusade with incessant publicity for the last few weeks, and yesterday running on screen messages inviting people to attend the prorogation demonstrations in their communities, must just demonstrate once again, that obviously nobody watches the CBC, and we should maybe begin a Face Book protest, that Canadian taxpayers are wasting a billion dollars a year subsidizing this broadcasting abortion. One thing you can be sure, after what Canadians saw on TV and read, these same pundits will not be able to convince Canadians this was a huge success and demonstration - it was a dismal flop. Three party leaders Ignatieff. Layton and May, at the rally in Ottawa as headliners and entertainment couldn't hold a thousand people there for the duration of the rally. Ignatieff will now have to go back to the drawing board, and follow through with his earlier promise in January "to investigate the conduct of our troops on the ground" in Afghanistan, who they have accused of being complicit in committing war crimes in Afghanistan because "they detained and handed over for torture a lot of innocent people". What is more, all Ignatieff and the Liberals have found, to this point in time for substantiation of their accusations of abuse, is some Taliban detainee being hit with a shoe, but their slurs and condemnations of our military continue.
To end on something light, the CBC are reporting, would you believe, that in Calgary "a group of protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s constituency office" ( it was never clarified but it was reported that these were people actually waiting for a bus and not prorogation protesters) and the CBC didn't mention, that in vast majority of the cities across Canada, nobody but nobody showed up.

Grendell said...

Odd Wilson that you mention floor crossing, since Harper also disgracefully welcomed a floor crosser only a few days after the 2006 election.

Anonymous said...

Yes, he's ahead, but I just saw X-Dipper-Ray on Craig Oliver's little hearing and he claimed his prorogations were "different". Rick Dykstra sure got a chuckle out of that. The lounge-singer can sure work a crowd, of gullible people.

Orville said...

Craig Oliver is not gullible but is a supporter and collaborator with Bob Rae and the Liberals.

Orville said...

Grendell
Quite a difference in Martin enticing and bribing phony Stronach to cross the floor to save his political butt and getting somebody with good credentials like Emerson into your cabinet.

maryT said...

Where is Danny boy in all this, he has been conspicuously absent. Will he campaign across Canada again with his ABC rant. Or, will he decide he would be better of at the table.
When we win the next election and NFLD is still absent, perhaps PMSH could appoint a minister resposible for NFLD, from Alberta.

Patrick Ross said...

Well, it's more like Bob Rae 3, Stephen Harper 3.

But count the days! Wow, it seems like Bobby's got a bit of the mad proroguer in him, too.

I wonder what he has to say about that. Maybe he just forgot?

maryT said...

And what were the first words out of Craig today on QP, the HofC was set to reconvene tomorrow but wont.
Funny, one would have thought the House should have been sitting all Jan.
I still wonder when the PM was invited to Switzerland, and when did he accept. Did the opposition know about it. Were they going to spring another coup attempt, and introduce a no confidence vote while he was gone. Is that why he prorogued, same reason as last time. But, Haiti happened to ruin plans. While the others stayed away, the PM and his cabinet have been working almost 24/7, but media ignored it. If Dion or Iggy were PM, and this disaster happened how would they have handled it and how would the media.
Money to match Haiti donations has to come from other budgets, I nominate the cbc to cover it all.

Grendell said...

Yes, Oliver, there was quite a difference. Harper's enticing of Emerson was even more outrageous, since it came quite literally days after the 2006 election.

Orville said...

Grendell
Harper had no ulterior motive to bring Emerson into cabinet like Martin did with Stronach. Harper was making up his new cabinet and recognized good talent from B.C.
Martin bribed Stronach with a cabinet seat for a vote that he needed to save his ass and so Liberals could go on stealing money from Canadian taxpayers as we found out in sponsorship scandal where people were actually found guilty and are in jail.

Anonymous said...

TangoJuliette sez:

RAE: 3 prorogues - 1 whole year out of 4.5.

HARPER: 2 prorogues.

PLUS: other notable liberal proroguers.

Chretien - 4.

Trudeau - 8.

Pearson - 3.

Louis St. Laurent - 7. In four years, including 3 in less than a 12 month period in 1951.

Mini total:

LIBERALS - 25 prorogations.

Harper - 2 prorogations.

Canadian Democracy *WAS* at risk. No longer, now.

Rae wouldn't make a "good Tory." He's too much of a bluddy doctrinaire whining lefty silk socking socialist.

Rae would "make a good_ _ _ "

Doormat?

third base?

Door stop?

Tester for silver-spoon-in-mouth manufacturer?

"Point" & ammo bearer for a Canadian Infantry platoon in Afghanistan?

tj

t.e.&o.e.

anon 1205 -- thnx.

And for those of you who "believe" hat Harper prorogued THREE time? Get back to the holy place pilgrims, check your scriptures - maybe even GOOGLE? BING? for verification.

jad said...

"And for those of you who "believe" hat(sic) Harper prorogued THREE time? Get back to the holy place pilgrims, check your scriptures - maybe even GOOGLE? BING? for verification"

Specially for tj and other non-believers, check out this link from the Library of Parliament website.

Or else cut-and-paste:

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/Sittings.aspx?Language=E

Now scroll down to where it lists the 38th Parliament, 1st session, and guess what we find :

"Prorogation 2007.09.14 - 2007.09.14 "

I believe that makes Harper 3.

Now I don't care if he prorogues 3 times or 33 times, but let's try and keep to the facts.

Anonymous said...

you call that a Prorogue? Not even enough time to replace the TP roll!!

Anonymous said...

TangoJuliette sez:

good catch! Guess we have to sort the prorogations down by "nature of..."

I sincerely apologize. I now believe what you believe.

Does that one-minute thing also appear in the list of actions of other PMs?

tj

t.e. & o.e.

Anonymous said...

Ammend to read:
Liberals - 25, Harper - 3.
Make it so!

jad said...

Many thanks, tj.

Not sure what you mean by the one-minute thing, but that page shows the breakdown for every session of Parliament complete with recesses, prorogations, etc.

Jen said...

"But we shall all rue the day that this brainwashing occurs in our public classrooms."

TJ, it already started, in the UNITED STATES, where children sing praises to OBAMA and not to God.
I am afraid that God has been kicked out of the UNITED STATES.

How many times did Layton vote against the 'budget' bill which had money for the people he so call claims to care about.
This is the Socialists tactics: 'use the 'poor people' yet ignore them when the budget has money for the poor.'

Ardvark said...

You are correct it was 3 for the PM. The one went by with so little fanfare that I forgot about it.

Anonymous said...

TangoJuliette sez: Hey Jad.:

Prorogation

as "the one minute thing?"

2007.09.14 - 2007.09.14.

Friday, 14 sept 2007 - prorogued.

Friday, 14 sept 2007 - prorogue ended.

Week-end off. No other days "off" due to prorogation ["...duration: 0 days..."]

Everyone back in House Monday 17 sep 2007. Not really much of a Prorogation, specially when compared to others.

Rae: 3 prorogations equal to more than 12 months off, out of a term of 54 months. His last prorogation was for more than 4 months, followed by writ drop, six week election campaign, three months more before Ont. Legislature sat again, with Harris as Premier. Total time with no provincial government: close to nine months.

Now, THAT'S time suckage, bigtime!!

tj

t.e.& o.e.