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Home » Canadian Life, Snapshots

No Prorogation Rally In Ottawa

Written by on January 25, 2010 – 10:37 am19 Comments

Let me put it this way: Cana­di­ans are usu­ally pretty quiet and it takes a lot to have them go down in the streets. But Stephen Harper made it, he man­aged to anger Cana­di­ans enough and have them demon­strate in the mid­dle of the win­ter. Way to go, Stevie!

On Decem­ber 30th, 2009, Stephen Harper, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Prime Min­is­ter, decided to shut down the Par­lia­ment until the end of the Olympic Games, early March. The expla­na­tions and excuses for the pro­ro­ga­tion are pretty vague — the Olympic Games, the eco­nomic plan etc. The prob­lem is, this isn’t the first time the Prime Min­is­ter shuts down the Par­lia­ment and Cana­di­ans seems to be sick of it. Indeed, with­out Par­lia­ment, noth­ing gets done. More­over, Stephen Harper has already pro­rogued the Par­lia­ment last year. This is appar­ently a move to get out of polit­i­cal trou­ble, more than any­thing else.

The oppo­si­tion par­ties obvi­ously didn’t agree with Harper’s move. And this time, nei­ther did the peo­ple. Grass­roots move­ments started on the web and “no pro­ro­ga­tion ral­lies” were orga­nized through­out Canada last Sat­ur­day, on Jan­u­ary 23rd.

This is hon­estly the biggest demon­stra­tion I have seen in Canada since I’m here. I was shocked to see how many peo­ple showed up on Par­lia­ment Hill. I guess it’s no secret that I don’t sup­port Harper’s pol­i­tics and the fact the Par­lia­ment can be shut down that eas­ily wor­ries me: hello, democ­racy, any­one? I went down in the streets as well — my first demon­stra­tion in a long long time.

Oppo­si­tion polit­i­cal leader addressed the crowd and so did var­i­ous speak­ers. The really was non par­ti­san and the atmos­phere was quite peace­ful. I also learned a fun cul­tural fact: Cana­di­ans make the best signs, ever!

You can see the full set of the rally here.

Rally And The East Block

Rally And The East Block

Anti Rogue

The Crowd

My Mes­sage To Harper

Dude, Where Is My Parliament?

It’s Not The Econ­omy, Stupid!

Take Democ­racy Seriously

Cana­di­ans Do Care

Hol­i­day Or Hiding?

Take Me To Diner Before You Fuck Me, Stephen

Nice Smile, Arro­gant Conduct

Harper Pup­pet

You Decide

The Crowd

Jake Layon, Leader of the NDP, Adress­ing the Crowd

Michael Ignati­eff, Leader of the Lib­eral Party, Adress­ing the Crowd

Michael Ignati­eff, Answer­ing the Media’s Questions

Related posts:

  1. Happy Birth­day, Canada!
  2. The Olympic Torch Relay In Ottawa (2÷2)
  3. Inter­na­tional Friend­ship Stage — Egypt
  4. Ottawa At Dusk
  5. Canada Day In Ottawa

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