Conservative Party history: Flanagan, "Harper's Team" (2007); Plamondon, "Full Circle" (2006)

Tom Flanagan, Harper’s Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power (Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007).

Bob Plamondon, Full Circle: Death and Resurrection in Canadian Conservative Politics (Toronto, ON: Key Porter, 2006).

Loathe as I am to do anything which might smack of granting endorsement to the current Canadian government, I am curious how the neo-Tories are beginning to write the history of their coming together as a unified political front. Since 1984, we’ve seen the federal Progressive Conservatives take their largest majority (211 seats) and smallest representation in the House of Commons ever (2 seats) [Plamondon shares the great joke that circulated during Jean Charest’s tenure as PC leader, that Charest’s wife was sleeping with half the PC caucus], we’ve witnessed the rise and fall of Preston Manning’s Reform Party, the conversion of Reform into the Canadian Alliance, and finally, the collapsing of the Alliance and PCs into the Conservative Party of Canada.

Flanagan and Plamondon approach much the same material, but with quite different points of focus. Flanagan speaks directly as a party insider, sharing his insights, observations, and concerns as an election and policy strategist. The book is, in the end, the story of Stephen Harper’s rise from the perspective of someone close to the man. Plamondon, on the other hand, is absent from his own story. He narrates the longer duration evolution of conservative party politics in Canadian from the mid-1980s, primarily by telling the stories of three very different men: Preston Manning, Peter Mackay, and Stephen Harper (although Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, and Belinda Stronach also figure prominently). His own role in this evolution, however, is never stated.

While it may be small-minded, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the number of typos in Plamondon’s book, as well as his rather heavy-handed potshots at political opponents (at the same time, I admit that the NDPs record during this time does leave much to be desired).

Flanagan’s book is great for those who want to know how the neo-Tories strategized their rise. It is a well-written guidebook for campaigners. Plamondon decently articulates a trajectory of a political movement that has influenced Canadian development for the last 20 years, and to his credit, captures some of the ‘insider’ battles, spite, and compromises that led Canadian conservatives out of the political wasteland. Neither author, however, convincingly gets inside the head of the current Prime Minister, alternately characterizing him as vindictive, hard-headed, and hungry for power, or pragmatic and willing to compromise to achieve his vision for Canada. As he has now served as Prime Minister for a few years, and may (gasp of horror) for a few more, this is an important challenge to resolve.