Fact Check Mike T:

Prorogation has been used more than 150 times since confederation:

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_fed..." target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_fed... - TRUE

Jean Chretien prorogued parliament on average once per year:

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_fed..." target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_fed...
Seven sessions between 1994-2001 - TRUE

Legislation has been stalled, gutted or blocked in the Senate:

<a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomm..." target="_blank">http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomm... - TRUE
An aside, I would love to see our Senators on TV hard at work! Mike Duffy deserves to be on TV! :P

The Government has not suffered defeat on confidence measure and legislation passed by all parties in the house still suffer ill at the hand of Liberal Senators:

See Ivison above. Most Notable is the consumer protection legislation passed unanimously by the House of Commons that was gutted in the Senate - TRUE
Had Stephen Harper lost a confidence measure, we would have had another election, or he wouldn't be Prime Minister anymore. - TRUE

The rhetorical questions are neither true nor false, they just have to asked!

Where are the lies?

There's a $50 Billion Deficit that, expressed in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the lowest in the industrial world. Had the liberals implemented their EI reforms, bailed out the automobile industry and pursued the green shift and thus gutted the oil sands in Alberta and deprived Canada of Billions of dollars in income tax, petroleum taxes and GST revenues, would have been much much worse.

There's the federal recession that would have been worse without the economic stimulus provided by GST cuts over the previous two years. Our recession is far less severe than the United States and the rest of the industrialized world, a testament to the shrewd economic stewardship of Stephen Harper and his economic team.

There's Harper dropping out of the University of Toronto to attend a superior school, the University of Calgary at a time when Calgary, freed from the shackles of the failed Liberal National Energy Program, saw Alberta more than double its Gross Domestic Product, it's population and saw a mass exodus of corporate head offices away from Toronto to Calgary. He knew that he had to be where the action was!

There's John McCallum who has scared off countless billions in investment in Canada and the Oil Sands of Alberta by his dire, partisan and irresponsible predictions of economic collapse and dependence on so called "dirty oil" - "Alberta may spew green house gases, but it also spews money" - Montreal Gazzette, December 2009.

Beside Stephen Harper, we have John Baird, Jim Flaherty, Jim Prentice and Stockwell Day - each and every one leaders in every respect.

My Prime Minster has never physically choked a protester like Jean Chretien in 1996. No Conservative party organizer has been convicted of fraud, theft or influence peddling like Liberals in the Province of Quebec.

$50 Billion dollars a year is the lowest deficit when expressed to GDP than any other industrial nation in the world. The Liberals demanded even more spending - thus the deficit would have been worse under their care and attention, and Canadians may never have known how much money ended up in Liberal Party coffers instead of being used for the national good as they have done it before.

I wonder if facebook has paid promotional consideration to the Liberal Party of Canada!

It takes time to restart parliament after prorogation. A throne speech has to be prepared, committees have to be re-organized, the legislative agenda has to be reset and both houses have to be readied. The later you prorogue parliament, the later it is that parliament can restart.

The house wasn't sitting until January 25, so by proroguing now, the house will actually sit more than 3 weeks earlier than had the Prime Minister prorogued the house on January 24 as you suggest. By proroguing the house during the winter recess, that time can be used more effectively to ready both houses than if the house were sitting - plenty of logical reasons to prorogue earlier rather than later!

Where the Special Committee on Afghanistan is concerned, you have to love when Members of Parliament behave badly. We have an issue left behind by the former Liberal Government that agreed to transfer Afghan detainees to the Afghan Government by whom they were tortured and a Conservative Government, in light of conflicting information, was slower to correct the mistake than the former Liberal Government would have liked. You have opposition members of the committee meeting without proper notice or quorum during the Christmas break or Government members of the committee who don't show up to meetings during the Christmas break, depending on who you speak with.

This issue and the facts will remain long after March 3 when parliament reconvenes for only the second time of this parliament. Had Prime Minister Harper prorogued on January 24 as you suggest, we would have had to wait even longer for this committee to continue.

All said, the benefits of appointing 5 more Senators and having them sit on committees outweigh the costs of delaying the work of parliament by 1 month.

I have an idea - why not shorten MP's Summer break in order to make up time!

The house has been prorogued more than 150 times. I believe Paul Martin and Jean Chretien have prorogued the house more times then Stephen Harper has.

Afghanistan is not an occupation as we have been invited in by the Government of Afghanistan and the mission is sanctioned by the UN, thus more peace keeping than anything else. Because this is not an occupation, the former Liberal Government negotiated to turn prisoners and detainees over to the Afghan Government, an agreement that has since been revised by the new Conservative Government to include inspections. Since this agreement has been put in place, detainee transfers have been suspended on several occasions.

I cannot see how the so called economic disaster is largely Harper's doing when our largest trading partner and largest economy in the world has seen nearly 1 in 4 houses foreclosed on and its largest banks and largest industrial businesses fail. A little more than a year afterwards, none of our banks have failed and our debt and deficit to GDP ratios are the envy of the developed world. Our success is his badge of honor! Stephen Harper is doing a great job!

I can see where you might be concerned about political turmoil however. While the Conservative Party, New Democratic Party and Bloq Quebecois have only had 1 leader each since 2003, the Liberals with Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff still can't seem to get it right. Maybe Stephen Harper should prorogue even longer so that they can get their act together!

Prorogation has been used more than 150 times since confederation, in fact Jean Chretien prorogued parliament on average once a year! Prorogation is part of the legislation tool kit!

The use of prorogation this time is particularly justified given the volume of legislation stalled, gutted or blocked over the past 3 sessions of parliament by Liberal senators. By proroguing parliament, appointing senators and placing them on committees, he will likely be able to break the current impasse. The only other alternative would be to dissolve the house and call an election - a much more lengthy and expensive process than a one month break.

Stephen Harper has proven he can work with the opposition parties over the past four years. The government has not suffered defeat on a confidence measure and legislation passed by all parties in the house still suffer ill at the hands of Liberal Senators in the upper house?

What is the matter with the Liberal Senators? Why won't they work with their own party and colleagues in the lower house? Why won't they work with other political parties to get the best legislation through parliament for the benefit of all Canadians? Why are they holding the country hostage for a Liberal Government - Democracy be damned?

Can Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Senators and Members of Parliament really be that ignorant and arrogant?

What's the point of re-introducing crime bills or election reform bills as these are routinely gutted, stalled or massively revised in the Senate? If the Government can't pass its legislative agenda, it doesn't matter if there is 1 bill or 1000 bills that die on the order paper, responsible government must do something.

Harper is great at getting things done!

This time, he prorogued parliament to facilitate the appointment of 5 new Senators and place them on committees in order to get even more done in the future!

Well done Stephen!

Remember, Remember the month of December! If not now, when?

Andrew Coyne feels that proroguing now is a black mark against Canadian Democracy, but I submit that it is absolutely essential for democratic renewal in this country!

A lot has changed since the Reform Party of Canada was founded in May of 1987. Back then, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia all contributed to the rest of the country through equalization payments, essentially sending billions of dollars to Ottawa for which they received nothing in return. The combined population of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba was eclipsed by the population of Quebec and many western canadians watched with disdain as their hard earned tax dollars were spent on economic development far away in Ontario and Quebec.

Today, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland/Labrador roughly break even on federal equalization payments, British Columbia and Ontario are have not provinces and, in 2007, Alberta transferred $21 Billion to the rest of Canada through equalization - roughly $7,000 for each and every Albertan or $700 for every Canadian! The population of Canada's four Western-most provinces exceed that of Quebec by roughly 3 Million people and British Columbia and Alberta watched as billions of dollars were pumped into bailouts of the industrialized wasteland of Ontario and Quebec!

Sadly, our practice of democracy is becoming frayed because our institutions are not keeping up with the times.

Our house of commons grossly short changes voters in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, but the real crime against democracy are the Liberal Party and its Liberal Senators. The Reform Party was sensitive to the coming storm and placed senate reform with equal provincial representation, effective power and elections as a center piece to its policy platform. Stephen Harper offered to appoint Senators based on the outcome of Provincial ballots and left more than 15 senate vacancies through the election campaign in 2008, hoping that provinces outside of Alberta would take him up on that offer. They did not!

Remember last December? Elizabeth May sure does! She was downright giddy with anticipation that a coalition of the Liberals, Socialists and Separatists would succeed and see her rapidly conveyed to Canada's upper house. The irony here is that Stephane Dion would have had to prorogue parliament in order have her placed on senate committees! Of course, Stephen Harper beat the coalition to its punch, prorogued parliament and appointed senators to fill all the vacancies available. These Senators reflect not only the Prime Minister's view of the country, but, excepting Alberta, the lack of political will on the parts of the Provinces to elect Senators!

In the Senate, scores of government bills lay rotting on the order paper, face massive revision or have been stalled in committees. While the House of Commons and more notably Liberal Members of Parliament are passing legislation, Liberal Senators have gutted this same legislation supported by their colleagues in the house and the work of parliament is slowly grinding to a halt! The Government of Canada's legislative agenda is in peril, yet they have not lost a vote of confidence and have proven how adept they really are in getting their legislation passed the lower house.

When a Government can no longer pass its legislative agenda through parliament, it is generally considered to have lost the confidence of parliament and the parliament is typically dissolved to an election or the Governor General asks the opposition to form government. Were an election held tomorrow, all indications point to another Conservative Minority Government, but the irony is that even a Conservative Majority Government would be hard pressed to pass its legislative agenda through the Senate. If the Governor General asked Michael Ignatieff to form a coalition Government, it is almost certain that he would prorogue the house as well, appoint Senators and embark on passing a liberal legislative slate over the rightful howls of Western Canadians who overwhelmingly voted Conservative.

So, Stephen Harper has yet again beat the opposition to the punch, prorogued parliament, will appoint Senators that reflect his view of the country and the cowardice of all the provinces that shied away from electing senators (excepting Alberta) and return to parliament on March 3 with a clean slate to continue pursuing his legislative agenda. I dare say this is just like any other Prime Minister confronted with the forgoing quandary. The only question was when to hit the parliamentary reset button, and the Christmas recess was as efficient a time as any given the next 5 Senate appointments can make a huge difference.

Simply put, prorogation was inevitable!

The heart of Canada's current political deadlock are Liberal Senators who are holding the country hostage for a Liberal Government - Democracy be damned. Should they succeed, a new conference on Western Canada's Political and Economic Future will convene. Given the most recent 30 years of this country's history, who will stand up for Canada?