Everyone enjoys a break from their daily routine.
Long weekends and vacations are always appreciated.
So, who are we to begrudge our prime minister, Stephen Harper, for wanting to prorogue parliament for a couple of months?
The current parliamentary session, the 41st, has been running for 222 days. Not quite two-thirds of a year, but that’s a lot of question periods ducking and weaving questions and scandals like a punch-drunk boxer.
But wait, those 222 days are actually spread over a two-year period.
The 41st parliamentary session started in June 2011, following the general election, and was in session for 68 days, another 129 days in 2012 and another 75 days in 2013.
No matter, Harper said he decided to prorogue the 41st parliamentary session because the Conservative government had achieved most of what it had set out to do in the last Speech from the Throne.
Word is, Harper will ask the Governor General to call MPs back in October.
Meanwhile, B.C.’s Premier Christy Clark is also putting the provincial legislature on hold for a bit.
If things were going well we could forgive our hard-working leaders for wanting a little ‘me-time.’ But things aren’t going well.
Hopefully, Harper and Clark use their time off constructively, to come up with economic action plans that actually benefit Canadians and British Columbians who are out of work.
Given the current unemployment rate in Canada, 7.1 per cent, is only 0.01 per cent better than it was a year ago, and the unemployment rate in B.C. dropped by just 0.02 per cent over the last year, it is obvious we need better planning and more action.
– Kelowna Capital News