Canada Suspends Parliament in Reprieve for Under-fire Pm

The Canadian government won a reprieve today when the governor general agreed to suspend parliament until late January, putting off a no-confidence vote that the prime minister was expected to lose.

In a controversial decision, Micha?lle Jean agreed to the suspension request from the prime minister, Stephen Harper, who is trying to cling to power less than two months after winning re-election.

Jean, the representative of the Queen as Canada's head of state, holds a mostly ceremonial position as governor general, but she has the power to accept or reject any request from Harper to suspend parliament.

Before today's meeting between Harper and Jean, the opposition said a suspension of parliament would only delay what they saw as Harper's inevitable defeat.

In a televised address yesterday, Harper condemned the opposition plan to gain power through a no-confidence vote as undemocratic and vowed to use "every legal means" to stop the attempt to unseat his minority Conservative government.

A Canadian government has never been thrown out by a no-confidence vote to be replaced without an election.

Harper will now work on a budget that includes a stimulus package amid criticism from the opposition liberal leader, Stephane Dion, that the government has no plan to respond to the shocks from the global economic slowdown.

Three opposition parties have banded together in an attempt to unseat the government. The coalition, which has promised to fast-track billions in dollars in spending as the country heads into recession, has the backing of Canada's beleaguered car and forestry sectors.

Canadians are split on whom to support. According to an Angus Reid poll for Canadian TV, 64% do not support Dion becoming prime minister in a coalition government, but 53% oppose the Conservatives' current economic policy. Some 57% are concerned about the separatist Bloc Quebecois's role in the coalition.

Analysts say Canada's political paralysis is unprecedented. A Canadian governor general has never refused a request by the prime minister to temporarily suspend parliament, but such a move had never before been requested to delay a no-confidence vote when it was clear the government lacked the confidence of a majority of MPs.

"There is no precedent whatsoever in Canada and probably in the Commonwealth," said Ned Franks, a constitutional scholar and political scientist. "We are in uncharted territory."