Prorogation is the end of a parliamentary session in the Parliament of Canada and the parliaments of its provinces and territories. It differs from a recess or adjournment, which do not end a session, and from a complete dissolution of parliament, which ends both the session and the entire parliament, requiring an election for the House of Commons in the bicameral federal parliament and the singular legislative chamber of the unicameral provincial parliaments.
In the Canadian parliamentary system, the legislature is typically prorogued upon the completion of the agenda set forth in the Speech from the Throne and remains in recess until the monarch or governor general, in the federal sphere, or lieutenant governor, in a province, summons parliamentarians. From 2008 to present, prorogation has been the subject of discussion among academics, the Canadian public, and their political representatives.
It is, according to the constitution of Canada, the Canadian monarch's royal prerogative to prorogue the legislatures, though this is usually done for the federal parliament by the sovereign's federal representative, the Governor General of Canada, and always for the provincial parliaments by the monarch's provincial representatives, the lieutenant governors. Like all such actions of the sovereign and governors, this is exclusively done on the advice of the relevant prime minister who holds the confidence of the elected chamber of parliament.
A parliamentary session lasts until a prorogation, after which, without ceremony in recent years, one or both chambers of the legislature cease all legislative business until the governor general or lieutenant governor issues a proclamation calling for a new session to begin. For the federal parliament, except for the election of a speaker for the House of Commons and his or her claiming of that house's privileges, the same procedures for the opening of parliament are again followed.