Understanding the prorogation of Parliament requested by Trudeau

In addition to announcing his upcoming resignation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Governor General Mary Simons to prorogue Parliament until March 24. Parliamentary work will therefore not resume before this date, thus avoiding a vote which could defeat the government and provoke an election.

By using prorogation, the current government can no longer fall, because the House of Commons can no longer meet to take a vote of non-confidencesummarizes Patrick Taillon, professor of constitutional law at Laval University, in an interview on the show It’s even better in the afternoon.

The delay should allow the Liberal Party of Canada to find a new leader. Opposition parties denounce the measure, immediately demanding elections.

The new person at the head of PLC will become Prime Minister of Canada and will quickly have to face the House of Commons. On the way back [de la prorogation] the first thing we’re going to do is a speech from the throne which leads to a vote of confidenceadds the law professor.

The vote of confidence will be followed by a budget. The federal government needs to pass its budget and appropriations in the springhe continues. According to him, these crucial votes increase the possibilities of finding ourselves in an election a few days after returning to Parliament.

What happens during the break?

During prorogation, the government does not cease to function; the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Prime Minister, the ministers and the parliamentary secretaries remain in office. However, bills that have not yet received royal assent are abandoned and parliamentary committees cease their activities, unless there is a motion allowing them to continue.

To take a computer metaphor, it is a profound reset of the parliamentary process. It’s not just restarting the computer, it’s almost erasing the hard drive.illustrates Patrick Taillon.

Among the bills that could die on the Order Paper is that on increasing taxes on capital gains. This tax will not exist, unless after March 24 we start from zero. So for me today, I would not want to be a tax specialist today and advise clientsremarks the professor.

Controversial tool and fragile conventions

This is not the first time that a government has used prorogation. The previous Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, used the mechanism four times during his reign, including once in December 2008 to prevent a Liberal-New Democrat coalition from bringing down his government, with the support of the Bloc Québécois. Jean Chrétien had also used it on four occasions.

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It’s quite entertaining because in 2008, they were rather conservative people, the fact that we want the governor to get involved, then today they are conservatives because they are in a situation opposite partisan who denounce [la prorogation]underlines Patrick Taillon.

The Governor General once again accepted the Prime Minister’s request, but could she have refused him? This is a big controversy that comes up periodically. There are still voices pushing the idea that the king’s representative could suddenly become a political actor and exercise judgment and no longer obey the will of the prime ministerrelates the professor from Laval University.

In reality, it is the governor who has the power, but in the reality of our conventions, he does not have the right. It depends on what glasses we decide to use to appreciate the situation in front of us.he adds.

Technically, Mary Simons could therefore have refused the prorogation, but this action would have been in conflict with Canadian parliamentary tradition. The most valuable thing we have in our system is based on fairly vague rules, which are unwritten and fairly soft law, which we call constitutional conventions.specifies Patrick Taillon.

All Canadian and British parliamentarism is based on respect for these fragile rules. Of course it’s a bit strange because these are not as solid guarantees as one might expect, especially in crisis situations.summarizes the professor.

With information from Guillaume Dumas and François Pouliot