Well, she had only two choices with respect to this specific question, however.
Either agree with the PMs advice, or disagree with it.
old-fart is right that to disagree with the PM's advice would have been to put the Queen above the people's elected representative.
And disagreeing would have opened up one hell of a can of worms. By tradition, Harper would have been compelled to offer up his resignation on the spot if she went against his advice.
So what then? Does she reject his resignation, order a new election or call Dion and ask him if he can form a government?
All three of those choices would have created a firestorm across Canada.
She had other options, but prorogueing the house is ultimately the least controversial, and the one with the highest odds of getting government back on track.
Also, fwiw, I have read from others that MacDonald prorogued the house during the Pacific Scandal when he was about to lose a no-confidence vote. So there might already be precedent. Haven't been able to verify the truth of that, however.
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