Don't need a stamp for this one

Though I should probably use one anyway. The opportunity to write the Governor General about a constitutional crisis and use an Anne of Green Gables commemorative stamp isn't going to come along that often.

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A1

To the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, Greetings!

It is my view as a citizen of Canada that prorogation, which is in normal times a formality in the functioning of Parliament, properly serves only its traditional purpose of ending a sitting of Parliament which has completed its legislative agenda as set out in the Throne Speech.

A Prime Minister seeking to have the House prorogued to avoid a confidence vote is a complete acknowledgement on the part of that Prime Minister that the government has lost the confidence of the House. Given that acknowledged loss of the confidence of the House, the government cannot continue and should not be permitted, through prorogation, to pretend that it can continue until some miracle favourable to it should occur.

The House should sit; the confidence vote should be held.

Should that confidence vote, as seems now likely, return a result of non-confidence in the present government, the Liberal/NDP coalition should be permitted to attempt to form a government. I say this because it is the constitutional custom for the leader of the opposition to be offered the opportunity to form a government when the present government loses the confidence of the House, a federal election has very recently been held, and the time required to hold a federal election would detract significantly from the ability of Parliament to address the present fiscal crisis.

More speculatively, the willingness of the Bloc Québécois to participate in the government of Canada, in any way at all, is a new and remarkable thing. For a party founded in large part on feelings of alienation and not truly belonging to participate in the government of Canada, even indirectly, and to gain a greater sense of inclusion, welcome, and belonging as a result, is a rare opportunity that I think it would be a great shame to waste.

May you find your duty clear before you and your wisdom and understanding entirely sufficient to your needs.


Sincerely,


Graydon Saunders