Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not a true representative of the people. Neither an academic nor an average Canadian, Mr. Harper is above all a political tactician. He rose to Parliament Hill and became Prime Minister with a minority government in 2006, and since then he has used any means necessary to retain that position, continually striving for a majority, which ultimately was achieved in the spring of 2011. However, in 2008, Harper initiated a prorogation crisis in which, fearing he would lose the confidence of the House and abandon his role in a government of unstable coalition, he asked then-Governor General Michaelle Jean that Parliament be prorogued. in an effort to fend off the coalition and create a financial update that will be acceptable to the House. Through this request and Jean's subsequent approval, Harper and Jean were accused of undermining the Constitution and creating a democratic deficit in Canada. The debate surrounding the 2008 prorogation crisis calls into question a host of issues such as the legitimacy of the governor general, the nature of constitutional conventions, and the freedoms and leniency granted to the governor general over executive decisions. Furthermore, it could be argued that any prorogation decision taken by the Governor General is inherently inconclusive; Essentially, if the request was refused, in Harper's case in 2008, his government would have been defeated in a confidence vote and a questionable, arguably unstable coalition led by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion would have come to power. However, when the request was approved, it allowed Harper, for lack of a better term, to evade his duties as Prime Minister of Canada and extend the co...... middle of paper.. ....practical level of discretion over ministerial councils, all decisions taken by them are generally of a dead end nature. There will always be a negative consequence, or a large group of Canadians who feel like there is a better alternative. Nevertheless, the Governor General takes it into account, as Michaelle Jean did in 2008. Jean also informed Stephen Harper that “she had not automatically approved his request to close Parliament… [and] that this was a matter of its constitutional discretion. to refuse it” (Francis 35). Regardless, ultimately Jean believed the best course of action for Canada would be to keep Harper in power and avoid the confidence vote by granting the prorogation – if Canadians really didn't want Harper is in power, one could argue that the election results just a month earlier should have better reflected the fact that.