Legislative session
In some countries, a session of the legislature is brought to an end by an official act of prorogation, in others by a motion to adjourn sine die.
In more recent times, development in transportation technology has permitted these individuals to journey with greater ease and frequency from the legislative capital to their respective electoral districts (sometimes called ridings, electorate, division) for short periods, meaning that parliamentary sessions typically last for more than one year, though the length of sessions varies.
In most cases, when a parliament reconvenes for a new legislative session, the head of state, or a representative thereof, will address the legislature in an opening ceremony.
Governments today end sessions whenever it is most convenient, but a "good faith exercise of the power" to prorogue parliament does not include preventing it from frustrating the prime minister's agenda.
Each session begins with a speech from the throne, read to the members of both legislative chambers either by the reigning sovereign or a viceroy or other representative.
The monarch usually approves the oration—which recalls the prior legislative session, noting major bills passed and other functions of the government[5]—but rarely delivers it in person, Queen Victoria being the last to do so.
When King Charles I dissolved the Parliament of England in 1628, after the Petition of Right, he gave a prorogation speech that effectively cancelled all future meetings of the legislature, at least until he again required finances.
(There were only four prorogations since 1961, twice to allow the visiting Queen to "open" Parliament, once after the 1967 death of Prime Minister Harold Holt and for political reasons in 2016.)
[8] Prorogation is now a procedural device, the effect of which is to call the Parliament back on a particular date (especially the Senate, which the government did not control), and to wipe clean all matters before each House, without triggering an election.
[8] In the Parliament of Canada and its provinces, the legislature is typically prorogued upon the completion of the agenda set forth in the Speech from the Throne (called the legislative programme in the UK).
More recently, prorogations have triggered speculation that they were advised by the sitting prime minister for political purposes: for example, in the 40th Parliament, the first prorogation occurred in the midst of a parliamentary dispute, in which the opposition parties expressed intent to defeat the minority government, and the second was suspected by opposition Members of Parliament to be a way to avoid investigations into the Afghan detainees affair and triggered citizen protests.
