I was joking when I said that Stephen Harper was probably racing to prorogue Parliament before Friday’s budget vote

In the wake of today’s news about the upcoming vote to defeat the budget and trigger an election, I said something that I’d now like to assure you was just a joke, with no evidence available to substantiate it.

“The race is on: can the Tories shut the government down again by Friday, in time to block the vote on the ‘no confidence’ motion?”

That was a joke, guys. There’s no valid reason to believe that Harper is currently trying to reach the Governor General in a desperate bid to prorogue Parliament and save his own ass, even though that’s traditionally been his “thing.”

For one thing, as my friend Mike kindly pointed out, there’s apparently no legal allowance for prorogation leading up to a vote on the budget. Not that a government that’s already been found to be in contempt of Parliament could be said to have a reputation for adhering to the rule of law, but you know what I mean.

For the record, Mike also noted that technically, we’re not actually talking about a vote of “no confidence” in this case. My bad, everybody!

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