The most controversial prorogation of recent times took place in 2008 in Canada; Stephen Harper, the prime minister and leader of the minority Conservative government, advised the governor general, Michaëlle Jean, to prorogue Parliament prior to the budget. At the time, the Liberal and New Democratic parties planned to form an alternative government with the support of the Bloc Québécois; prorogation postponed the motion of no confidence in Harper's government and by the time Parliament sat again, the agreement between the opposition parties fell apart and Harper remained in office. Harper controversially advised Jean to prorogue Parliament again in late 2009, until after the 2010 Winter Olympics; at the time, Harper was under heavy scrutiny for his role in the Afghan detainee affair. A similar crisis that concerned the use of royal powers to break parliamentary deadlock took place in Australia in 1975; the prime minister, Gough Whitlam, was controversially dismissed by the governor-general, John Kerr, and replaced by the leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, who commanded a majority in the Senate. The House of Representatives, controlled by the Australian Labor Party, passed a motion of no confidence in Fraser, but was unable to reinstall Whitlam before Kerr dissolved Parliament in advance of a federal election.