Tom Flanagan’s last stand (II); The neo-liberal Calgary School

By PEGGY MORTON*

We are posting below Part Two of “Tom Flanagan’s Last Stand” by Peggy Morton from TML Daily. For Part One please click here.

Part Two

TOM FLANAGAN made his last stand in Lethbridge on traditional Blackfoot territory, putting an end to his career as a political pundit. But the influence of the Calgary School remains with Stephen Harper at the head of the dictatorship ruling Canada on behalf of the monopolies. The Calgary School is a group of neo-liberal academics from the University of Calgary’s political science, economics and history departments of which Flanagan has been a part. Their role both in academia and behind the scenes in the cartel parties that keep Canadians out of power shows the extent of U.S. imperialist dictate over Canadian political affairs.

Stephen Harper’s connection with the Calgary School dates from his enrolment as an undergraduate at the University of Calgary. Harper moved to Calgary from Toronto in 1978. He enrolled at the University of Calgary [his biography does not state the year] and received a BA in Economics in 1985 and an MA in 1991. When Harper, a founding member of the Reform Party, decided to make a bid for the leadership to replace Stockwell Day, Flanagan signed on early as a supporter.

From its beginnings in the 1960s, the Political Science Department at the University of Calgary was dominated by a U.S. fifth column. The first chair of the Political Science Department was C. Burke Inlow, an American who was recruited directly from the Pentagon, where he had been involved in “intelligence work” with U.S. personnel stationed in Iran and the Middle East.

Neo-liberal academics were recruited from the U.S. and Canada and even from the Vatican to the new university in Calgary. What they all had in common was defence of monopoly right and opposition to the affirmation of all other rights. Upon their arrival in Alberta, these academics, several of whom were the product of elite private schools, assumed the persona of rugged, plain-spoken westerners, supposedly in the image of “redneck Alberta” which they claimed to represent.

Tom Flanagan was one of two American recruits, the other being Ted Morton, who also played a significant role in the formation of the Reform Party. The Calgary School provided an ideological foundation and active political organizing for Reform while the U.S. oil companies provided the money. Together they played a very significant role in bringing Harper to power and furthering the annexation of Alberta and Canada into the United States of North American Monopolies.

Flanagan acted as Harper’s political advisor and later played the same role for Danielle Smith as campaign advisor to the Wildrose Party in the 2012 Alberta election. He was crowned by the monopoly media as the “voice of Alberta” and an expert on aboriginal issues.

Members of the Calgary School are associated with the American political scientist Leo Strauss whose most famous adherent was Paul Wolfowitz, considered the main architect of Bush’s Iraq war strategy. Strauss claimed a philosophical justification for monopoly right on the basis that domination and subjugation are the “natural order” of the world. The elite who rule by virtue of their superiority necessarily must be above the law, and use “noble lies” to accomplish their aims because the people cannot be trusted with the truth.

Flanagan claims to be a follower of Friedrich Hayek, an economist virulently opposed to socialism and proponent of the “hidden hand of the free market.” Hayek argued that society should bear no responsibility towards any of its members except the most powerful. Margaret Thatcher declared herself a follower of Hayek, and Ronald Reagan said he was amongst the two or three people who had most influenced him.

Flanagan made a career as a defender of colonialism, claiming that the indigenous peoples are conquered peoples who must accept the “civilizing” influence of the colonialists. He advocated forced assimilation and opposed the affirmation of the hereditary, treaty and constitutional rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit. As well as writing numerous books, he acted as an expert witness for the federal, Alberta and Manitoba governments to oppose land claims.

In Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights, Flanagan provided the framework for federal legislation now before Parliament to eliminate First Nations communal property and replace it with fee simple property ownership, thus facilitating the theft of First Nations lands by the resource monopolies and the rich. He wrote:

“Aboriginal people are the least prosperous demographic group in Canada. In life expectancy, income, unemployment, welfare dependency, educational attainment, and quality of housing, the pattern is the same: aboriginal people trail other Canadians…

“Ironically, although First Nations are at the bottom of socio-economic rankings, they are potentially wealthy landlords, with land reserves totalling 6.5 million acres (2.7 million hectares). To be sure, some reserves are of modest economic value, because they have no natural resources and are located far from population centres. But others have arable land as well as commercial timber and valuable deposits of oil, natural gas and minerals. Also, as Canadian cities continue their inexorable expansion, more and more reserves are finding that their location makes them valuable. Dozens of reserves are now situated within or on the edge of major cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Montreal, as well as rapidly growing smaller towns such as Kamloops, Kelowna and Courtenay-Comox….”

Nothing could be clearer than that. The monopolies want control over the land, natural resources and the people, and the ideologues of U.S. imperialism, colonialism and monopoly right provide theoretical justification. The Calgary School plays a sinister role in Canadian political affairs on behalf of U.S. imperialism and its flunkeys. In the battle of ideas, it is necessary to oppose the neo-liberal Calgary School and its political, economic and theoretical positions. It is integral to the battle to deprive monopoly capital of its ability to deprive Canadians, the First Nations and the Quebec nation of what belongs to them by right. It is a necessary aspect of being political and preparing conditions for a pro-social alternative.

*TML Daily, April 8, 2013 – No. 45

Related reading on this website

Peggy Morton. “Tom Flanagan’s last stand,” April 4, 2013

Tony Seed. “The politics of assassination – Flanagan & Harper style,” April 8, 2011