Michaëlle Jean for President

So our Governor General, Michaëlle Jean acceded to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request that Canada's parliament be suspended until late January. And the justification ... ?

Well, none was provided. But perhaps it had something to do with Harper's Conservative Party being on the brink of losing control of the government.

Now I don't dispute that the Governor General was acting within her powers. But I do think her powers need some tweaking if parliament can be suspended just to allow the Prime Minister to evade the will of the elected members of parliament. That kind of contempt for democracy smacks of absolutism. Who does the Governor General report to, anyway? Oh, right: the Queen of England!

I'm reminded of some lines in the jingoistic second verse of "God Save the Queen":

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all.

God save us all, indeed. It seems that Canada's politics are the ones being confounded. (I confess, however, that I do admire the rhyming of politics with knavish tricks.)

I wonder if it isn't time that Canada grew up and that the sun set once and for all on the western remnant of the British Empire. It's time we became a republic. Of course a republic needs a President. And to show I hold no grudges, I would like to nominate Michaëlle Jean. But enough already with the proroguing!