prorogation

Prorogation, Dissolution, Adjournment: Three Ways Parliament Stops Sitting, and Why the Difference Matters.

Parliament stops sitting in three legally distinct ways. Adjournment suspends sittings within a session — committees can keep working and all business survives. Prorogation, exercised by the Governor General on the Prime Minister's advice, terminates the session: government bills die on the Order Paper (they can be reinstated by motion in a new session at the stage they had reached), while private members' business carries over automatically under the Standing Orders. Dissolution, also on the Prime Minister's advice, terminates the Parliament entirely and triggers a general election; every bill dies with no reinstatement. Prorogation has repeatedly been used at politically convenient moments — Stephen Harper in December 2008 during the coalition crisis, Justin Trudeau in August 2020 during the WE Charity committee studies, and again in January 2025 during the Liberal leadership transition — making the mechanism itself a recurring accountability question.