Thousands protest Boris Johnson's move to suspend Parliament
Protesters assembled outside PM's office chanting: 'Liar Johnson, shame on you!'
The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 31, 2019 3:31 PM ET
I dislike this move as much as anyone. Though, so far as I can discern, its perfectly legal.
The concept of proroguing is one with which I vehemently disagree; and I would like to see it removed from the Canadian context completely as well.
Its almost always a vehicle for getting rid of legislation a government had no desire or intent to pass in the first place, but felt it had to appear otherwise, for one reason or another.
This vehicle allows the "but we tried" defense, which I don't find serves the public interest.
I would prefer to see the sitting dates of parliament enshrined in law, with some minor allowances to be flexible either in the event of emergencies or to accommodate statutory holidays that shift around or the like.
Something, like, "Parliament shall generally sit no later than the third week of January, and from then until no sooner than the fourth week of July each year; it shall resume sitting no later than the first full week of September following Labour Day and remaining sitting till the last day of the third week of December of each year."
"This shall generally comprise no less than 220 sitting days per annum. "
"The term of each parliament shall be fixed to be, from the first sitting day following an election, to the last sitting day prior to the writ being dropped for a subsequent election."
Or some such similar wording.
The system should be less gamable.
Likewise we need to tighten rules on omnibus bills.
We need to specifically restrict any non-financial matter from being directly tied to the budget bill.
We also need to address how votes work in legislatures. I'm not keen on majority passage when the House barely meets quorum.
I think every bill should require an absolute majority of the seats in the house to actively vote for it.
ie. in a 338 seat parliament, where 170 is a majority; I don't believe it should be legal to pass a bill with fewer than 170 votes in favour.
We can't allow politicians in any country to game the system easily, the temptation, at least for some, is too great.