Rallies were held across the country on Saturday, to protest Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to suspend parliament until March.

In Brantford, around 50 prorogue protesters gathered at city hall at 11:30 a.m. to hear a united front from Brant federal candidates Marc Laferriere of the NDP, Lloyd St. Amand of the Liberals and Nora Fueten of the Green Party.

Much of the Brantford crowd, including Laferriere and St. Amand, then travelled to Hamilton’s Gore Park to join a crowd of more than 100 people with the same cause.

The anti-prorogue rally ran from one p.m. to 4 p.m. with politicians, university professors and everyday citizens taking the opportunity to speak to the crowd.

For Laferriere, the size of the crowd and the diversity of people in it showed him that politics has changed.

“People are demanding a new kind of politics,” he said. “So many people from different walks of life can become involved in political causes now because of things like social networking online.”

Laferriere said he found out about the anti-prorogue rally through social networking site Facebook, one of the new kinds of political avenues he was referring to.

“When you have a way to discuss and engage people that’s open to almost everyone, you can really get your message out there, and that’s golden,” he said.

The Facebook group “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament” was established in reaction to Harper’s decision to prorogue parliament on Dec. 30, the group has more than 200,000 members and provides information on anti-prorogue rallies.

Harper also suspended parliament in 2008. On both occasions, he asked for and received permission from Canadian Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean.

Through groups such as CAPP, Laferriere said he believed more people were becoming interested and involved in politics and that people at rallies across the country were sending a message to the prime minister.

“The democracy that Canadians have been proud of for so long is deteriorating,” he said. “Stephen Harper is accountable to us. As Canadians citizens, we’re his boss. I think enough of us have gotten together to say enough is enough. When your boss says enough is enough, if you don’t listen, you’re likely to get fired.”

Liberal candidate St. Amand was happy with the turnout despite the cold weather, and stood in front of the crowd briefly to thank them for their attendance and what it meant in the political realm.

“By being here today, we are saying to (Stephen) Harper, you are not going to build a firewall around parliament,” St. Amand said.

According to CBC, more than 60 rallies were planned across the country, as well as in several U.S. cities and London, England.

In Ottawa, RCMP officials estimated 3,500 people gathered on Parliament Hill to protest.

Under the prorogation, parliament is scheduled to resume on March 3.