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LILLEY: Of course Mark Carney should prorogue Parliament and here's why ...

There are very valid reasons for Mark Carney to prorogue Parliament if, or when, he gets his majority government.

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Mark Carney says he is “absolutely not” thinking about proroguing Parliament if he gets his coveted majority after the April 13 by-elections. It’s too bad because he really should be considering doing so when he gets his majority because it would make life easier for his government.

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The Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday morning that Carney was considering prorogation if he got his majority, in part to ensure his party had control of Commons committees. Asked about the report at a news conference on Tuesday, Carney emphatically ruled it out.

LILLEY: Of course Mark Carney should prorogue Parliament and here's why ... Back to video

“First, absolutely not. It has never even entered my thinking, the possibility of that. So, I couldn’t have been more surprised to see suggestion that what that was under consideration,” Carney said.

He went on to say that he and his government are working hard to make real progress in Parliament. Well, if he wants to make real progress in Parliament, he should prorogue and immediately reconvene the House of Commons with new Liberal-dominated committees.

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One of the reasons for having a majority government, which Carney effectively already has but will get in practice after the by-elections, is to control the movement of the business of the House. Right now, the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois can derail government business because they have the majority or at least the ability to outvote the Liberals when the Chair is not voting.

Standard Parliamentary tool

Prorogation is a standard Parliamentary tool that has been used for centuries without controversy. In 2008, after then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty presented their fall economic statement in late November, the opposition announced they would vote the government down.

The American financial crisis was spreading and the opposition parties felt that Harper, who was leading a minority government, should have brought in more stimulus measures. They banded together and vowed to install Liberal Leader Stephane Dion as Prime Minister on the premise that he would have a bigger spending budget.

That Dion had the backing of Jack Layton and the NDP was not an issue, it was that the Bloc Quebecois under Gilles Duceppe would be backing the government, is what irked Harper. He prorogued Parliament, shutting it down from early December until late January and by the time the House reconvened; Harper and his Conservative Party were riding high in the polls.

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Dirty connotation for some

For some, though, the idea of prorogation has taken on a dirty connotation. The reality is that Carney could prorogue the House in the morning and reconvene with a new Speech from the Throne later that day.

That has happened more than once.

Louis St. Laurent, Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau all prorogued the House of Commons and called them back the same day with a new session.

In 1991, then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney prorogued on May 12, 1991, and called the next session on May 13, 1991. There was no work lost, but it gave the government a chance to perform a reset, which is why the tool is there.

There are even ways to make it so that important government bills that are in the middle of their progress and would otherwise die on the order paper are put back in the same position that they were prior to prorogation.

Either Mark Carney doesn’t understand how Parliament works, which is quite possible or as Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much.”

There is nothing wrong with prorogation, assuming he doesn’t shut down the House for months. If he wins his majority, Carney absolutely should prorogue Parliament and rightly take control of the committees, which as PM of a majority government would be his right.

It’s what I would do.

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