Stephen Harper says he’s hitting the reset button on Parliament and delaying reopening the Commons until October.
The Prime Minister announced his fall plans during the second day of his annual northern Canadian summer tour.
The Commons was originally scheduled to return Sept. 16. Prorogation means unfinished legislation dies on the order paper, although bills in progress can be returned to the stage they were at with unanimous consent of the House or a majority vote.
Prorogation is often done during majority governments to signal a new legislative agenda. The new sitting will begin with a Speech from the Throne.
The Prime Minister's Office said Mr. Harper would ask that Parliament be prorogued before September 16, when MPs were due back, and so the Commons will not meet again until October.
Sources say while the timing is not set in stone the Commons is expected to return at some point after Thanksgiving.
The Conservative Leader said in response to a question that he plans to run again in an expected 2015 federal election.
"Of course, yes," Mr. Harper said when asked during a stop at a Whitehorse machine shop. "I'm actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question," the Prime Minister said with a smile.
Mr. Harper boasted Sunday night that his party had fulfilled 84 of the more than 100 campaign pledges it had made during the 2011 election.
"There will be a new Throne Speech in the fall. Obviously, the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that," he said.
"We will come back in October, [that] is our tentative timing."
He said the No. 1 priority for his government will continue to be jobs and the economy.
"We remain in a very difficult, fragile and competitive global marketplace and we think there is much more to be done to secure Canada's economic potential and economic future."
Mr. Harper said the Throne Speech will lay out his agenda for the second half of his political mandate.
Mr. Harper's reboot of his government, which had a difficult spring because of controversies such as the Senate expense scandal, includes a shakeup in the Prime Minister's Office which is already underway.
He'll also rally the troops in late October during the Conservative Party's convention – held every two years – where the Tory Leader will work to mend fences with his base which is upset with the Senate scandal.
Mr. Harper needs to encourage the Conservative Party rank and file to start preparing for the countdown to the 2015 election.
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