Sovereignty What? Democracy Who?

I will begin with a disclaimer that I have followed our own Canadian politics less than closely for many years now, so my judgements are based on surface impressions.

The intervention of the Governor General to suspend Parliament is an absolute outrage. The opposition has every right to mount a non-confidence vote. The Prime Minister's appalling attempt to undermine the opposition by removing federal financing for the parties is equally deplorable. The whole thing amounts to an obscene affront to our democracy.

The Governor General should have the sense and good grace to realize her role is ceremonial, and Harper's request is completely inappropriate. Her position is a relic of our colonial past, which we retain only in the name of tradition and she, of all people, should know this and should mind her place. The coalition in the making represents the majority of Canadians.

There are good reasons to be wary of this aspiring new government. It is born of constitutional maneuvering and not of an explicit mandate from Canadians. It is to be led by a man who does not even have the confidence of his own party, one which lost ground in the last election. It is shored up by those who in rhetoric at the least, don't agree that Canada in it's current form should exist. These are complicated issues, but the shutting down of the house at a time of world wide economic crisis, when the value of our exports that drive our economy are plunging, by a representative of the Queen no less, is the absolutely wrong solution.

When the house has less pressing business on it's agenda I believe the role of the Governor-General in Canadian Politics ought to be reassessed.