This week's perspective from Aliya Jiwan:Prorogation has long been used as a parliamentary tool by governments in power. But in recent months it became the dreaded p-word, making headlines after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced (for the second time in a year) he would shut down Parliament for two months until after the Olympics. Despite a flurry of events to show his government was still hard at work, Harper’s government took a hit in polls. Now, Premier Dalton McGuinty is swimming in the p-word pond, proroguing Queen’s Park, but the difference is he’s not struggling to stay afloat. Aside from the fact that the federal budget and the Olympics have been dominating media coverage, what made the p-word a non-issue this time is partly due to the communications around it. McGuinty made it clear to reporters that he considered the public outcry to Harper’s actions in his decision to prorogue and he didn’t hesitate to use the Prime Minister as his foil. "We will not follow the federal government's example of an extended break before we have that throne speech.” In order to avoid the same backlash Harper faced, McGuinty wisely chose a much shorter time frame. “It convinced us that Canadians and Ontarians are now kind of on to this prorogation thing. Especially in a time of tremendous economic challenge, we should be at work.” In this case, the legislative session wrapped up at the end of day on Thursday and will resume the following Monday. While both McGuinty and Harper used the same procedural tool, McGuinty’s careful choice of words and willingness to differentiate his actions from those of Harper’s spared him the same backlash the PM won’t soon forget.
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