The Man behind Stephen Harper The new Conservative Party has tasted success and wants majority rule. If Tom Flanagan and his Calgary School have their way, they’ll get it without compromising their principles May 1, 2020 - by Marci McDonaldMarci McDonald Updated 9:44, May. 1, 2020 | Published 4:22, Oct. 12, 2004This article was published over a year ago. Some information may no longer be current. Eamon Mac Mahon The Calgary school has drawn attention from US intellectuals for creating “a new form of nationalism that in turn is changing the terms of debate in English Canada.” Consternation rumbled across the country like an approaching thunderhead. For aboriginal leaders, one of their worst nightmares appeared about to come true. Two weeks before last June’s federal election, pollsters were suddenly predicting that Conservative leader Stephen Harper might pull off an upset and form the next government. What worried many in First Nations’ circles was not Harper himself, but the man poised to become the real power behind his prime ministerial throne: his national campaign director Tom Flanagan, a U.S.-born professor of political science at the University of Calgary.