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, they still can’t explain why. Since Harper’s announcement in December, Conservatives have offered over half a dozen dubious excuses for shutting down the House of Commons for the next five weeks.

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

The “What can I tell ya? You can’t pull the boys at Finance away from CPAC during Routine Proceedings” excuse …

"We want to take some time, which is normal for governments from time to time to re-examine their agenda and get prepared for a new budget ...” – Stephen Harper, CTV News, 8 January 2010

There are a few people who don’t buy that excuse:

“If you can’t plan a budget with the House sitting, that strikes me as a bit odd. Every budget that I’ve worked on, and I worked on a lot, the House wasn’t prorogued. The minister carried on doing his job and we planned the budget and I don’t see why this particular budget requires more consultation than any other budget that this government has done...” – Scott Clark, former deputy minister in the Department of Finance, The Hill Times, 25 January 2010

“Canadian ministers, it seems, are a bunch of Gerald Fords. Like the American president, who could not walk and chew gum at the same time, they cannot, apparently, cope with Parliament's deliberations while dealing with the country's economic troubles and the challenge of hosting the Winter Olympic games.” – Editorial, The Economist, 9 January 2010