The Short Parliament of King Stephen

In 1640 King Charles I of England was forced to recall parliament for the first time since it had been dissolved 11 years earlier. He was forced to call this session to fund his war, but The House of Commons was reluctant to provide these funds. It seems that Charles introduced quite a few unpopular reforms during his reign. Charles attempted to address a major grievance by ceasing to collect a tax which was not approved by parliament. This was not enough to impress The House. The grievances were too great and it became clear that The House was not going to bend to this kings whim. King Charles I ended up dissolving parliament after only three weeks. This session came to be known as The Short Parliament of King Charles I.

We then move forward to 2008 to the 40th Parliament of Canada and see a similar situation. Here we have a government which introduced very unpopular, very divisive legislation which they knew full well wouldn't be accepted by the opposition parties. They introduced this legislation after grandstanding on the idea of working with the opposition during “this period of economic uncertainty.” So like King Charles I of England being denied the funding for his war, Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party were denied their unpopular right wing agenda which includes (among other things); suspending the right of federal employees to strike, removing the right for women to appeal pay equity disputes and the elimination of vote subsidies to federal political parties.

Like Charles, Stephen has decided that a parliament that doesn't bow to his whim is not worth having. He requested the Governor General dissolve this body to avoid a confidence vote he knew he would lose. The Governor General went ahead and set a very dangerous precedent by granting his request and prorogued parliament after only three weeks. This precedent will allow the Prime Minister of any minority government to simply lock the doors of The House and refuse to allow a vote whenever they are afraid they will lose their grasp on power. This is the legacy of the Short Parliament of King Stephen; the weakening of our democracy.