With 1.6 million Canadians still out of work, Stephen Harper has decided that Members of Parliament shouldn’t work either.

While it’s clear that Conservatives don’t think MPs should be doing their jobs in Ottawa, what they still haven’t explained is why. Since Harper’s announcement in December, Conservatives have offered over half a dozen outlandish reasons for shutting down the House of Commons for the next five weeks.

As a public service, New Democrats offer Stephen Harper’s excuse of the day for padlocking parliament.

The “We were still using our 2009 agenda” excuse

“The fact of the matter is this … the government is going to take advantage of this time – we need the time – to look carefully at our agenda, to continue to deliver the economic measures that are being delivered here and elsewhere across the country as part of the economic action plan. We also need time to re-examine our agenda, to prepare for the next year in Parliament, and to prepare for a very different economy going forward.” – Stephen Harper, GlobeandMail.com, 8 January 2010

That’s how the Harper Conservatives think they should be able to run Canada: without having to provide a good answer for anything they do.