Prorogation for the nation. Harper's exercises in selective democracy.

So Harper has done it again, with one phone call and no public appearance. Happy New Year, Canada! We have Orwell's "1984" in 2010. Parliament is prorogued for the second time in two years. Apparently Harper has nothing to hide, but detains our elected members. Now we can all watch the Olympics in Peace and Harmony, feeding on political pablum, laced with illiberalism and unaccountability.

I am a liberal to the extent that I value our Parliament and its institutional history, or, rather, what remains of it. Harper is so illiberal he makes a mockery of democracy, and for once I agree with Andrew Coyne, who blogs that Parliament should meet somewhere else. (See his "What's at stake.") The last time our Parliament was prorogued I suggested they meet at a Tennis Court, a reference to the beginning of the French Revolution. Ostensibly they should meet in "half" a Tennis Court to show a government in abeyance, if not arbitrary and beyond acceptance.

Harper's New Year's gift to Canadians puts the ill-fated Dion-led coalition in a much better light. It failed because the Canadian public was not willing to accept a coalition that was not "elected" as such, a spurious notion in a minority parliament. The minority government is illegitimate because we did not vote to prorogue (or let's say detain) our national institition, for opportune periods (another "time-out"?). He has no mandate to close down, at his cynical convenience, on our elected representatives, their committees and our conventions - on our Parliament - and we are now on the slippery slope.

As the Olympic torch drives its way across Canada, I am reminded of another modern-day torch relay begun (yes, the first) in 1936, Hitler's Germany - and the Berlin Olympics. That nation was not much bothered by pesky politics and parliament because the Reichstag, too, had been torched. The only time Canada's Parliament went up in flames was in the height of World War One - and we blamed the Germans. If our House of Commons gets destroyed, I think we'll have to blame the Prime Minister: he loves playing with fire. And I can just imagine the Ottawa headlines: "Harper fingers piano as Parliament burns."