Harper: Brilliant Strategist?

[normanchateau]

"It's no state secret. Stephen Harper's ambition is to see the Tories eventually dethrone the Liberals as Canada's natural governing party. And the strategy for it comes courtesy of Tom Flanagan, his top adviser.

And this is where we get to Harper's ultimate prize: a context ripe enough for him to try to turn conservatism into Canada's dominant public philosophy - something Flanagan lamented last year wasn't "yet" the case. That's why, he wrote, it's important for the Tories to tame voters with "small conservative reforms" before they can be powerful enough to get to the big ones. Note the word "yet." Scary? No kidding.

While it's too soon to say whether Flanagan's scenario will unfold as such, at this moment his musings aren't that improbable. Stéphane Dion's leadership woes are real enough. So are his party's wobbly finances and the divisive ambitions of Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff. So is the possibility that the Greens, the NDP and the Bloc could end up further splitting the non-conservative vote.

The real poll, as they say, is the one on election night. But if final results confirm this tendency, Harper and Flanagan will be one happy ideologically-driven tag team. And quite a team they make. Flanagan, a U.S.-born professor of political science at the University of Calgary, has been Harper's closest adviser since the days of the Reform Party. Tory insider Ezra Levant describes the two men as "symbiotic partners" and Flanagan as the "master strategist, the godfather, even - of Harper." Levant says he even calls him "Don Tomaso." Flanagan is also one of the creators of the School of Calgary - perhaps Canada's top group of neo-con thinkers.

...if Harper keeps pulling off his grand seduction of Quebec nationalists, though he used to abhor them, it's because he agrees with Flanagan that for electoral reasons, it's best to appease them...

Strangely for someone who shares Harper's distrust of the media, Flanagan is so confident in his own brilliance and Dion's ineptitude that he has taken to detailing his strategies on a regular basis on the Globe and Mail's op-ed page."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/feat...d2f4409&p=1

There's no question that Flanagan is a brilliant strategist. If he was able to propel a socially conservative, big spender into a majority government while convincing Canadians that Harper's a fiscal conservative and social moderate, the man's a genius. Dion needs a Flanagan. If Flanagan could convince Canadians that Harper has the same values as most Canadians, he could do this with anyone.

[Moonbox]

I didn't think it was any secret that there are strategists behind most political leadership candidates. That's what they're there for and everyone knows it. Dion probably has a strategist teaching him english and how not to be such a whiney pushover, and Layton probably has a carebear coaching him.

One man/woman can't know everything about what Canadians think and how they feel. If you have a good strategist, all that means is that you have someone that knows what Canadians feel and want.

[bush_cheney2004]

Uh oh...he is "US born"..the truest mark of a political devil. Somebody get a rope....

[Moonbox]

Surely he is going sell us all into slavery to the Americans...

[Bryan]

Flanagan is a really smart strategist, I wish he was more involved with the CPC than he has been. Problem is, Harper is not really following Flannagan's model very closely anymore. Flannagan was much closer to the Reform ideals that what Harper is doing. If Harper really was anywhere as close to the Calgary school as people claim, I'd be much happier with the Conservatives than I am now. If there was one thing I EXPECTED from Harper when I voted for him, was that the Fraser Institute would be more closely represented in parliament, especially with regards to fiscal policy. Election strategy, yes Harper is listening. But I don't think Flanagan (or any Fraser fellow) would ever have recommended Flaherty as finance minister for instance.

And if people are worried because he's born in the US, they should really be running from the Greens.... Elizabeth May was born in the US too.

Edited September 5, 2008 by Bryan