Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
cc Your Excellency, Mr Johnston
Your Majesty,
Thank you for your reply to Chantal Dupuis and Your agreement therein to intercede with the Governor General of Canada.
She has not made too much progress in penetrating the administrative 'moat' surrounding Your Vice Regal, and therefore been frustrated in communicating with him the concerns You seemed to agree with in her earliest message to you regarding the Omnibus Bill (now referred to as Omnibus 1)
I write in accord with Chantal to inform you of the now-provincial proliferation of the "Prorogation Disease" that is being facilitated by Your Executive officers. This neglect of written, Constitution/BNA Act powers must be attributable to either an unforgivable nescience of their full mandates, or, (forgivable as human beings) a reluctance to challenge/correct imperfect or all-political recommendations from the Legislative Office holders for fear of negative public reaction to an "appointee" over-ruling an "elected person" - I thought Canada clarified this point (for minority-status First Ministers at the very least) with the King-Byng affair.
Just this week the Premier of Ontario, Mr McGuinty resigned his position as Liberal Party of Ontario leader. The terms of his resignation included his agreement to stay on as Your First Minister of Ontario until a successor can be chosen as new Liberal Leader AND astoundingly, the prorogation of the Ontario Legislature, Mr McGuinty leads-in-minority, without a date for reconvening that Assembly.
Regardless of the personal and professional/political details of Mr McGuinty's decision, the timing is terrible - many fiscal, financial, social, moral, governance, accountability and labour issues need immediate attention, plus the announcement came without warning or notice!
I fear Your Lt Governor, Mr Onley, followed in lockstep, the decision(s) of Your Former Governor General, Ms Jean, to assent without much independent Advice, their respective First Minister's request(s) for prorogation and/or dissolution of the Legislative Assembly/House of Commons.
In all these cases the First Ministers were in a "hot spot" politically:
- in late summer of 2008 Mr Harper 'quit' his minority House early (after enacting a fixed term limit amendment to the Canada Elections Act just a year earlier);
- in December 2008, Mr Harper, returned in Minority asked for a prorogation to avoid dismissal as Your First Minister that might have resulted from a never-called, loss-of-confidence motion proposed by the combined-in-coalition Opposition parties;
-in late December of 2009, Mr Harper, still in minority, requested a second (we jokingly started thinking these might become Annual events) prorogation to sidestep awkward questions in committee what might have coincided with the Winter Olympics;
- just now Mr McGuinty's minority (after several years with a majority) administration is facing a constitutional challenge to his legislation regarding the provinces teachers (why he didn't just use the Notwithstanding clause is beyond me), is being probed by House committees that the government no longer numerically controls, is running a huge budget deficit and is being scrutinized by bond-rating firms ...plus the regular thousands of things that every day life brings for consideration by the Assembly and to the Chief Legislative Officer.
Your Majesty, please can you warn, encourage and advise these Executive Officers to "Just Do" their jobs!
We Canadians were blessed with a hierarchical system of checks and balances to prevent abuses of power by the Executive and by the Legislative powers. But bit-by-bit, we've wandered off course, the Legislative has usurped the power intended to be shared/held by the Executive.
Your Majesty, please admonish these Loyal Servants of the Crown and instruct them to follow the as-written text of the foundational laws of this country!
rce
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." -Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)
