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Secret Government plans

Flanagan’s Secret Plan



Imagine my surprise when I recently learned I was a key player in a secret government plan.

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And not just me. Apparently, John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is also involved in the scheme. Before I go into details of this secret plan, however, you need to understand some background. For the past couple of years, both John and I have been highly critical of the Conservative government’s failure to actually act like true conservatives. We have both vigorously and publically pushed the Tories to be more aggressive when it comes to cutting taxes, we have both urged them to slash spending and we have both bemoaned Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s failure to reduce the size and scope of government. Has all this criticism angered or upset the Harper Tories? It seems it has not, at least if you believe Tom Flanagan, Harper’s mentor and former Chief of Staff. In a recent wide-ranging interview with the Canadian Press, Flanagan declared that criticisms from the political right didn’t bother the Tories a bit. In fact, he maintains such attacks are all part of a cunning Conservative “plan.” Here’s how Flanagan explained it to CP: "Part of the execution of the plan was that there would be conservatives attacking him (the prime minister) - like John Williamson, Gerry Nicholls. That's extremely useful, to have that kind of pressure there, berating the prime minister for not doing enough." What exactly does Flanagan mean? How is my “berating” Harper, “extremely useful”? Well, as far as I can figure it, there are three possibilities to explain his comments. Possibility one, is the Conservatives are using John and myself (as well as other small “c” conservatives) as cover, so the government can go further to the right than they otherwise would. In other words, the Harper Tories can move to the right and still appear “moderate” because they are falling short of the “drastic measures”, virulent right-wingers like Gerry Nicholls are proposing. However, since the Conservatives are actually doing very little that can be construed as moving to the right, this scenario seems unlikely. Possibility two is that the government welcomes right-wing criticism because it helps the Tories rebrand themselves as a bona fide left of centre party. What better way to win over Liberal voters than to say, “Hey we are not scary conservatives anymore. We are really just like Liberals. That’s why those zany right wingers don’t like us.” That would be a pretty cute political magic trick, but a magic trick only works if the magician keeps the audience in the dark as to how he does it. And now Flanagan has spilled the beans, meaning Canadians might now suspect that right-wing criticism of Harper is merely a choreographed charade designed to help the Tories score political points. In other words, by going public in the way he has, Flanagan has undermined any political usefulness that might be gained when right wing critics go after the Tory government. Why would Flanagan, who is a smart political operator, willingly sabotage the government’s strategy in this way? Unless, of course, there is no government strategy or secret plan. And this leads to the third possibility: perhaps Flanagan and Prime Minister Harper resent it when principled conservatives point out their failings. Perhaps they want to put a stop to it. So maybe Flanagan’s comments were actually designed to discredit the character of conservative critics such as myself by implying we are operating under some sort of secret directive from Ottawa. Wouldn’t that be an effective way to shatter our credibility as independent principled conservative voices? Indeed, how do I defend my reputation? How do I prove no plan exists? I can’t. That means from now on, whenever I speak out against the government’s lack of a conservative agenda, there will be those who will simply assume I am acting in accordance with Harper’s desires or as part of some grand plan. Will that keep me silent? Not a chance. The fact is, I have a (not so secret) plan of my own and that is to keep nagging Prime Minister Harper to do the right thing for the right reasons – no matter what other people think. And no, Stephen Harper didn’t tell me to write this column. You can count on that.


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Gerry Nicholls -- Bio and Archives

Gerry Nicholls is a Toronto writer and a senior fellow with the Democracy Institute. His web site is Making sense with Nicholls


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