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Thursday, January 19, 2006

What is the Calgary School?

Congratulations to Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail for mentioning the "Calgary School".

I did a little research myself on this collective group and found they have writings that center around five common themes. Members of the Calgary School include Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff, Barry Cooper, Ted Morton, and David Bercuson. All of them are known for their hard right views, taking a look at this article there were these themes that kept coming up


A revisionist reading of the aboriginal issue. Flanagan has been at the forefront of efforts to reconfigure the debate over Canada's first nations, beginning with a controversial reassessment of Louis Riel, the Métis leader who fomented rebellions on the prairies in 1869-70 and in 1885, and who was subsequently executed by Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservative government. Flanagan has himself been a consultant to the federal government in court cases dealing with land claims - something which, as Marci McDonald has pointed out, has insulated him from criticism by Paul Martin's Liberal government. The Calgarians would generally like to see the reserves re-categorized as municipalities with the power to tax their residents;


A general hostility to group rights. This holds obvious relevance for the aboriginal issue, but it also embraces the recognition of special status for Québec and affirmative action for women and visible minorities. At the same time, given their western orientation, they are far from averse to constitutional mechanisms, such as a reformed upper chamber, that might empower the country's periphery over against central Canada, that is, Ontario and Québec. Their model here is the Australian Senate which represents each state equally, irrespective of population. Thus, their distrust of group rights obviously does not extend to territorially defined groups, provided they are treated equally;


A generally libertarian policy toward economic markets and taxation, and a distrust of the welfare state. Here their preferred policy options are not so much conservative as classically liberal, with the classical liberal emphasis on maximizing individual liberty in the face of what they perceive to be an overweening state. The spectre of Adam Smith's famous invisible hand hovers in the background, moving the Calgarians to embrace policies that would diminish the share of the economy dominated by the public sector. This would entail lowering government expenditures and taxes alike, thereby putting more economic resources and the decisions concerning their use in the hands of individuals;


Free trade, especially with Canada's closest neighbour, the United States. This is a logical implication of the Calgarians' preference for free domestic markets. As McDonald has pointed out, their orientation is definitely in a north-south rather than east-west direction. That Flanagan and Morton are American-born is perhaps of some significance for understanding this orientation, which has broader cultural, intellectual, and military implications as well. Their generally pro-American posture brings the Calgarians the most criticism from professed "Red Tories," such as the intellectual heirs of the late George Parkin Grant, who claim to represent an older tradition of conservatism with deeper roots in this country; and


A hostility to the activism of the courts, which are imposing an agenda that could never meet with success if it required approval by an ordinary parliamentary majority. Under the current post-1982 régime, governments have an incentive to avoid making difficult political decisions, passing them to the courts to decide. Because the courts don't face the people at the polls, they have no difficulty in making such decisions, even if these decisions are more appropriately made by a representative body. That this empowering of the courts has come at the expense of our hallowed constitutional principle of responsible government is deeply offensive to the Calgarians.


It should come as no surprise that Harper was musing about "activist judges" yesterday, he sounds almost like a Bush clone in disguise, notice how he ends his speeches with "God Bless Canada", how he claims the Senate and the public service will stop him from implementing his agenda. If anyone truly believes that Mr. Harper has had a miraculous conversion, then he has already fooled you. Mr. Harper reminds me of a quote from the Usual Suspects. "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." We will see on monday whether it turns out that the Devil pulled that trick off.

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