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David Schneiderman
This article offers a response to arguments put forward by Rainer Knopff and Dave Snow in the Canadian Parliamentary Review about the 2008 prorogation controversy. In ��Harper�s New Rules� for Government Formation: Fact or Fiction?� (Vol. 36, No. 1), Knopff and Snow dismiss the theory that the Conservative government and its well-known supporters in the punditry believed that changes in partisan control of parliamentary government could only occur following fresh elections, thereby establishing �new rules�. Instead, they suggest the arguments of government supporters at the time, most notably those of political scientist Tom Flanagan, fit within the mainstream of Canada�s parliamentary tradition and engaged with an �older consensus� articulated by constitutional expert Eugene Forsey in The Royal Power of Dissolution. In his response to this piece, the author is critical of Flanagan�s engagement with Forsey�s book-length argument and suggests Forsey�s conditions for dissolving parliament and holding a new election were not met in the face of the proposed coalition government in 2008.
