Harper Shuts Down Parliament - Again

Stephen Harper is a coward.

Running from the Afghan detainee scandal, he has once again prorogued parliament - this time until March 3, 2010.

As the CBC reminds us:

Harper successfully appealed to Jean to prorogue Parliament last December, thwarting all three opposition parties in their attempt to defeat his government in a no-confidence vote, and replace it with a proposed coalition between then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's party and the NDP, with support from the Bloc Québécois.

After Jean granted Harper's request, the proposed coalition collapsed and Dion was replaced by current Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who gave his party's conditional support to the Conservatives' budget last January.

When the going gets tough, Harper runs away. And Ignatieff's refusal to support the coalition while simply asking for "report cards" every few months has proved to be a sad joke.

Both the Liberal and NDP parties have propped up the Cons at times over the years when that party should have been forced to account for its incompetence at the polls. When Wannabe Dictator Harper's back is against the wall, he claims that parliament has become "dysfunctional", throws a tantrum, and ends proceedings while leaders like Layton claim they're only caving to Harper's demands because "Canadians want their government to work". Well, as Dr Phil would say, Jack: how's that working for you?

Ralph Goodale is right. This is a ""shocking insult to democracy". The question now is: what are the opposition parties going to do about it?