We reported today that Stephen Harper will pull the plug on the 39th parliament on Sunday.

When he does, the government he led will go down, by my count, as the second-longest minority government in our history. The 39th parliament will have lasted 888 days, well back of the record.

The Library of Parliament counts from the beginning of the 'term' of the government which it records for Harper's government as April 3, 2006. (The general election was on Jan. 23, 2006 and he and his first cabinet were sworn in at the end of February.)

The record was 1,277 days and it is held by the 14th parliament which began on Dec. 6, 1921 and was led by former Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King.

Until Harper took silver in this interesting category, the second-place spot was held by the 27th parliament which lasted 826 days. That one was co-hosted by prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. It began with the general election of Nov. 8, 1965.

UPDATE: Harper's Conservatives claim that, in fact, the 14th Parliament doesn't deserve the honour but that the 39th Parliament is the longest.

Here's their thinking. First, they count the Harper tenure from the day the election was held. On Sunday, that will be 959 days.

Now, in the election of Dec. 6, 1921, King's Liberals won 117 seats. The opposition won 118. King was in a minority.

But then in December, 1922, the Conservatives tell me, two MPs crossed the floor from the oppposition benches to sit with the government. At that point, King's minority ended and he was running a majority government.

But then in December, 1923, the Liberals lost two byelections and returned to minority status. Then, in November 1924, they won two other byelections and won back majority status.

We're looking for clarification ...