Adam Daifallah reviews Tom Flanagan's new book, Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power in today's Globe and Mail. Flanagan, the University of Calgary political scientist had key leadership roles in three of the four campaigns the Harper team has run over the last five years. Flanagan himself also has a piece in the Globe – a condensed version of the last chapter of his book in which he offers “The Ten Commandments to Conservative Campaigning.”
I've just finished Flanagan's book myself. Because part of my job involves covering the Conservative caucus, I was keen to see what Flanagan had to say about some of the things I've been reporting on for the last couple of years. For many key events, Flanagan and I were on opposite sides of a door in the Centre Block — he was on the inside and I was standing outside with a microphone.
I'm going to put a series of separate posts here from the notes and questions I had while while reading his book.
Here's one oddity: On page 253 of the edition I have, there is a very funny typographical error. Flanagan is talking about the 2006 election campaign in which Harper laid out his famous “Five Priorities” and then the Conservatives contrasted their list with Prime Minister Paul Martin who had many, many more priorities. Flanagan means to write, at this point, “…we put out a list of fifty-six priorities that Martin at one time or another had declared …” but instead, the typesetters published “…we put out a list of fifty-sex priorities that Martin had at one time or another declared …” I assume only Sheila Martin would be able to tell if Prime Minister Martin kept his commitments …