Hundreds of citizens from across Grey and Bruce gathered in front of Larry Miller's office on Saturday afternoon to protest the proroguing of Parliament.

The protest was one of dozens held across the country by citizens upset by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent decision to prorogue Parliament until after the Olympic Games are held in Vancouver/Whistler. This is the second proroguing in the past two years by the Prime Minister.

The event in Owen Sound on Saturday drew a large crowd. Many members of the crowd carried signs mocking the Prime Minister's decision. One local student carried a sign that said: "I've prorogued my homework. It ain't doin' me no good!"

Representatives from across the political spectrum attended the meeting and spoke to the crowd.

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound federal Liberal candidate Kimberley Love attended the meeting.

"Parliament is supposed to be the voice of the people. The rest of us don't get nine weeks off to go to the Olympics. When you hide from Parliament, you hide from the people," Love told reporters before the protest officially started.

Love is now in Ottawa, as an unelected candidate, attending Liberal caucus meetings that are going on this week in lieu of Parliament being open.

Local agriculture leader Grant Robertson spoke at the meeting.

"I grew up in this area and learned a lot of good values. One of those values was a hard days work for a hard dollar. In Ottawa, they think a hard days work is when you go on vacation for a couple months," said Robertson. "They're subverting our values and they shut down our Parliament so they can hide," he said.

Dave Trumble of the Grey Bruce Labour Council noted some irony when he spoke to the crowd.

"I've written letters to the editor about how much better I feel when we have a Conservative government and they aren't sitting," he said. "What I see is fear. It's fear that the democracy we all believe in is in jeopardy," said Trumble.

MP Larry Miller did not attend the rally. He told The Express he had a busy schedule of appointments on Saturday and he also attended a funeral.

Miller said his office has heard from 50-70 people upset about Parliament being prorogued. He explained the government had a number of reasons for the short suspension of Parliament.

"We basically delivered on what we said in the last Throne Speech. This is a chance to re-calibrate and a Throne Speech sets a new direction for the government," said Miller.