Abolish the Canadian Governor-General

If you believe in democracy, you HAVE a duty to call for the abolition of the Governor-General.

The Governor-General (GG) announced this afternoon (December 4, 2008) that she would grant Stephen Harper’s request to prorogue the Parliament. She claimed that she has the constitutional right to do so and did it without consulting with one Canadian. That is totally undemocratic. Actually it is down right aristocratic.

Stephen Harper claimed that the coalition opposition tries to topple his minority government and ask the GG to allow them to form a new government is undemocratic. It is undemocratic because the public did not vote for them to form the government. That is a fair statement.

Having said that, it is then only fair and democratic to have another election if the government falls due to a non-confident vote. It should be pointed out that it is the government who insisted that the vote should be considered as a confidence vote. The opposition did not ask for that.

Whether there should be another election or not is an entirely separate issue. It should not be the critical issue that determines whether confidence vote should take place as the government scheduled. To delay, defer and/or cancel the vote is strictly democracy denied!

Yet, the GG prorogue the Parliament. In effect the GG denies democracy and pop-up a minority government that faces certain defeat. Not only that is undemocratic, but also the GG sets a dangerous precedent for any government to use GG to deny democracy in the future.

The GG is paid for using our tax money. We have a right to expect the GG to be democratic. Now that GG has proved that she is aristocratic instead of democratic, it is high time that we call for the abolition of the GG. After all Governor-General is a symbol of British monarchy. Canadian has repatriated the Constitution long time ago. It is time to cut the tie with the British monarchy.