Up in Ontario

Who is Tom Flanagan?

Tom Flanagan has made his career as an apologist for the powerful. He is best known as a founder of what has become known as the Calgary School of political science, for his writings dismissing the entitlements of native people and for his books on Louis Riel, who he repeatedly has tried to recast as a religious zealot. He finds himself much in demand as an expert witness on native land claims because his scholarship bolsters the cases of federal and provincial governments looking to avoid or minimize any settlements or payouts. In ancient Greece he would have been called a sophist and in the courts of the renaissance he would have been a coutiere: the man who whispers in the ear of the man with power.

He is also, as Marni McDonald writes in an excellent article from The Walrus (!), The Man Behind Stephen Harper.

Certainly, by last June there was no lack of opinion that Flanagan's own writings were controversial, if not right off the mainstream map. As the Conservatives' campaign director, he seemed perfect fodder for the sort of Liberal attack ads already depicting Stephen Harper as a scary extremist with a hidden agenda. The mystery is why Paul Martin's admen didn't jump on that tailor-made target.

Rick Anderson, who has worked with both Harper and Flanagan in the Reform Party, has no doubts. "I'd be astounded if it were otherwise," he says. "They're intellectual soulmates, philosophical soulmates."

Some great sections of McDonald's article highlight how Harper spent time with the National Citizens' Coalition (motto: 'More freedom through less government.') and his jockeying for power in the Reform Party, utilizing the ethics and patterns espoused in a book called Chimpanzee Politics, 'A study of the world's largest captive chimp colony at a Netherlands zoo, it chronicles the scheming, coups, and ultimate murder of the would-be alpha male, Liut.' Woot, woot indeed.