Calgary School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Calgary School is a name used to refer to a group of like-minded academics from the University of Calgary’s political science and history departments. These academics make up to about a quarter of the faculty of the political science department at the University of Calgary.

Members of the Calgary School include Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff, Barry F. Cooper, Ted Morton, and David Bercuson. It is not clear whether anyone self-identifies as a member of the school. Nonetheless, it remains a popular term in the Canadian media.

Tom Flanagan has been credited with being instrumental in the rise of Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, both in developing his policy and in organising several of his campaigns.

Ted Morton, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, finished third in the December 2006 leadership race of the province's governing Progressive Conservative party.

The school, however, is more known for its conservative, and sometimes libertarian, publications than its political ascendency.

The term, originally a play on the Chicago School of economics, was coined by American political scientist David Rovinsky in "The Ascendancy of the West in Canadian Policymaking," 1998 paper published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.