I've never been a fan of the monarchy, but I've always before been able to shrug it off as a quaint and faintly embarrassing relic; an irrelevant anachronism and nothing more. Today, though, I am angry about it as I never have been before.

The Governor-General - an unelected figure who is unanswerable to anyone or anything save for an elderly foreign aristocrat - has decided that she has the right to stand in the way of the lawful operations of the parliament and suspend the workings of our elected government. And as disgusted as I am by the fact that this appendix in the anatomy of our government has decided to become inflamed and in need of removal, I am no less disgusted by Harper's decision to incite her to do so.

And Harper himself. I am paralyzed by indecision. Such a wealth of invectives I could aim at him. Where does one begin?

They say that all bullies are at their core cowards, and Harper has definitely demonstrated that where he is concerned, this is true. Not merely a bully, but also an idiot, he decided to pick a fight with a group who over-powered and out-numbered him. And then, when to his utter shock and horror, they decided to fight back, he ran screaming to mommy, begging her to make the bad democracy go away and leave him alone.

It has been said before by wiser and more well-informed people than I that Harper rules as a tyrant when given the opportunity, and certainly he has proven this true this past week. While his surrogates are out there scare mongering and shouting his hateful, partisan talking points from the rooftops, accusing the other parties of attempting to make a power grab born entirely out of greed, Harper himself has decided that if he cannot lead the country, then nobody can. He would rather shut down the parliament for TWO MONTHS in a time of crisis than see somebody else lead it. The stench of projection hanging about these conservatives bleating about the leaders of the other parties being desperate for power is thick and suffocating.

Short weeks ago, I was actually DEFENDING the man as a necessary evil. "The pendulum needs to swing both left and right in order for a democracy to function healthily. At the moment, it's swung somewhat rightwards. All things in their time", I said. But now, upon seeing the pendulum begin its leftward swing, he seized it in his hands and broke it off entirely, preventing the flow of power from taking its natural course, thus demonstrating his fundamental contempt for the democratic practices of our country.

I freely acknowledge that a majority of Canadians object to the notion of a coalition government as it is currently being proposed, but I also know that nearly two thirds of Canadians entrusted members of Parliament of parties other than the Conservatives to make the choices they thought best for the country, and so they were doing before the agent of a foreign power prevented them from doing so. I feel it is necessary to point out that given the constant stream of invectives and scary language that Harper and his cronies have been delivering from their bully pulpit, I wonder how much of that objection on the part of the Canadian people is born out of an informed opinion and how much out of the irrational fear which our esteemed leader has worked so hard to inculcate in his program of gutter politics this past week.

If I take any comfort in this prorogation of parliament, it's that the leaders of the parties who the majority of the population voted for will have this time to inform the population of the facts of the situation and perhaps beat back the flames of fear which the Conservatives are and will be so frantically fanning in the mean time.