Alongside his announcement to resign as the leader of the Liberal party, the Governor General granted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request to prorogue Parliament on Jan. 6.
Prorogation is what occurs when a session in Parliament ends. Parliament is prorogued at the request of the prime minister, but is enacted through the Governor General or by proclamation published in the Canada Gazette, according to the House of Commons procedure and practice.
A new Parliament session will begin on March 24.
These two announcements weren’t synonymous with one another. The proroguing of Parliament was a “last-ditch” effort by Trudeau, according to Tom Bateman, a political science professor at St. Thomas University.
“It looks like prorogation is being used by the prime minister to throw a big life ring to his sinking political party,” said Bateman.
Related: Trudeau steps down as Liberal Party leader, will resign as prime minister
Members of Parliament are released from their parliamentary duty when prorogation is enacted until the next session of Parliament begins.
When prorogation occurs all of the business before Parliament dies. Once it is over, a new session begins with a clean slate for parliamentary business.
“Whatever the government wants to do, it has to start all over again, re-introducing legislation that may have died at the previous prorogation,” said Bateman.
He said his process leads to even more uncertainty.
This is especially the case when it comes to changes to capital gains tax that was under proposed legislation but not passed into law before Jan. 6.
“It indicates, among other things, that the Trudeau government has just been flying by the seat of its pants and not thinking straight about the policy agenda and they’re just preoccupied with things such as popularity and when, or if, the prime minister should resign,” said Bateman.
Bateman added further that it’s unfortunate the situation culminated in prorogation, as many big policy pieces were left “on the board that need to be ordered.”
26 government bills died when Parliament was prorogued.
Notably, Bill C-63 was proposed in an attempt to make social media services accountable for reducing exposure to harmful content, which included an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Trudeau had previously prorogued Parliament for 37 days in 2020. Between 1980 and 2010, the average length of prorogation was just 22 days.
The current prorogation of Parliament is in effect for 74 days.
Bateman said the political roots of this prorogation is indicated by the drawn-out suspension.
He believes that the prorogation would’ve been longer if it had not been for Parliament needing to approve funds to allow the government to continue operating due to it being the end of the fiscal year.
“It’s about Trudeau seeking to hang on, seeking to keep the Liberal government afloat for a while longer and maybe buying time to see what can be done to save the ship,” said Bateman.
Trudeau’s announcement came a day before the Public Accounts Committee was scheduled to begin discussions of a non-confidence motion towards the current government.
This was announced in a social media post on Dec. 27 by New Brunswick Progressive Conservative MP John Williamson, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
In the posted statement, Williamson said the vote of no confidence would be “debated and voted on by the House of Commons as early as Thursday, January 30.”
The pressure on the current administration was not just external according to Bateman.
He noted that the most recent poll done by the Angus Reid Institute, put support for the Liberal party at just 16 per cent, which “is the lowest number [he has] seen.”
In October a letter was signed by over two dozen MPs calling for Trudeau to step down.
The Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario Liberal Caucasus, which consists of 131 of the 153 Liberal MPs, called for his resignation shortly before his announcement.
“Trudeau could no longer resist the increasing numbers of members of his own caucus that were asking him to resign,” said Bateman.
The decision to prorogue Parliament in this particular instance was that of an act of power according to Jamie Gillies, the coordinator of the communications and public policy program at STU who has a Ph.D. in political science.
Gillies says it is a “fact” that Trudeau used his power to prolong his government and avoid an election in the upcoming weeks. He says this prorogation period is to make an attempt at salvaging the Liberal party.
“I think Justin Trudeau was just out of options,” said Gillies. “There was no sort of magic that he could pull out for a fourth term.”
