A Facebook group was formed by a student in Edmonton and received a lot of media attention. The group has more than 225,000 members, which is fairly significant number. I would almost guarantee 99 per cent of the Facebook friends of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament would never vote Conservative, so that likely puts the numbers in perspective. Plus, it’s easy to participate in the democratic process when all you have to do is click a mouse.

I certainly appreciate the power of social media. It’s a powerful political tool and was used extensively in the US presidential campaign.

Last week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced he would prorogue the Legislature for a short period.

Outraged (not really), I decided to start my own Facebook group –Ontarians Against Proroguing the Legislature –as my own experiment in social media. After only a week, I have 32 members –mostly, family and friends. Not much of an outrage out there over McGuinty’s prorogation.

Why is that?

I know, I know, people will argue Harper did it for selfish political reasons. But… so did McGuinty. I know, I know, people are upset that Harper shut down debate over the Afghan detainee issue. But… what about the HST debate?

Harper shut down Parliament for two months (technically only five weeks with Christmas break). The Ontario Legislature has been off since Dec. 3 and only returns this week for a short stint before prorogation. That’s almost three months without any debate in the Ontario Legislature. Where is the outcry? Where are the protest marches? Why won’t anyone join my Facebook group?

I don’t support Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, mainly because I believe when a country is at war, our elected officials should be in Ottawa. I don’t support prorogation of any kind. We elect and pay our politicians to work.

However, there’s a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to who can use the constitutional tool of prorogation these days.

Here’s some more interesting information on prorogation to put things into perspective.

During the Mike Harris/Ernie Eves years, the Ontario PCs prorogued the Legislature five times: Dec. 18, 1997 to April 23, 1998 -126 days; Dec. 18, 1998 to April 22, 1999 -125 days; March 2, 2001 to April 19, 2001 -48 days; March 1, 2002 to May 9, 2002 -69 days; and March 12, 2003 to April 30, 2003 -49 days.

When Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, his NDP prorogued three times during their five year reign: Dec. 19, 1991 to April 6, 1992 -109 days; Dec. 10, 1992 to April 13, 1993 -124 days; and Dec. 9, 1994 to April 29, 1995 -140 days, after which they dissolved government and called an election.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien prorogued Parliament four times and Pierre Trudeau five times. In many of these cases, the PM of the day decided to prorogue Parliament to avoid facing scrutiny in the House of Commons.

I don’t remember people taking to the streets in outrage.

Too bad we didn’t have Facebook back then.