Article from the Ottawa Citizen

April 09, 2008

PM CAN OVERRIDE FIXED-DATE VOTE: EXPERT

Conservative whip promises 'ample notice'

Juliet O'Neill, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Prime Minister Stephen Harper would be perfectly within his rights to ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, triggering a general election, on grounds some Commons committees are not functioning, says Ned Franks, one of Canada's parliamentary experts.

In a separate interview yesterday, Conservative government whip Jay Hill said if and when Mr. Harper considered an election call on the grounds that committee difficulties had made Parliament dysfunctional, the prime minister would give politicians and the public "ample notice."

While opposition MPs accuse the government of obstructing legitimate opposition demands at committees, Mr. Hill accused the Liberals of using committees to wage "partisan witch-hunts." He rejected a peace offering in which the Liberals agreed to temporarily postpone a committee study of Conservative party election financing violations.

Mr. Hill said the committee will not resume business until the opposition restores Gary Goodyear, the MP they ousted as chairman of the procedures and affairs committee for rejecting the study.

Mr. Franks predicted Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean would have no hesitation, "none whatsoever," in acceding to an election request because the prime minister has the right to seek dissolution of Parliament despite fixed-date election legislation. Committee dysfunction could be a "plausible" justification, he said.

While Liberals say Mr. Harper would be violating the spirit of the fixed-date election law, which sets the next election in October 2009, Mr. Hill said the prime minister's justification would obviously have to be "defensible in the court of public opinion." If Parliament was not functioning well, that would show a lack of confidence in the government, he said. "It's a no-brainer that we'd have to go to the people to try and settle it."

Mr. Hill echoed what New Democratic Party MPs reported him saying at a private meeting with opposition whips last week: that, if committee paralysis continues to spread, "Parliament will become dysfunctional to the point where the prime minister would have to seek to dissolve Parliament."

The issue has gained prominence since Commons Speaker Peter Milliken issued a ruling urging MPs to quell "anarchy" in some committees and warned of the "tyranny of the majority" in a minority Parliament.

Two other committees are at issue: justice, where Conservative chairman Art Hanger refuses to allow a study of the Chuck Cadman affair that would require Mr. Harper's testimony on what financial offers were made to the late MP; and environment, where the government is filibustering NDP legislation on greenhouse gas emissions.

Opposition whips offered yesterday to temporarily postpone the study of election financing violations and move onto consideration of legislation easing identification requirements for voters in a federal election.

However, Mr. Hill said the committee won't get rolling again until Mr. Goodyear is restored as chairman.

Mr. Franks said Mr. Harper did not even need the justification of committee anarchy or dysfunction to go the Governor General. The fixed-date law was an amendment to the Parliament of Canada Act, which says Parliament may be dissolved any time, he said. "Every province in Canada that has fixed election dates also has that exception."