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The Calgary School is a term coined by Ralph Hedlin in an article in the now defunct Alberta Report in reference to four political science professors – Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff, Ted Morton, and Barry F. Cooper – who became colleagues at Alberta's University of Calgary in the early 1980s. They shared and promoted similar ideas about how political scientists could shape the rise of a particular kind of conservatism in Canada – informed by theories based on Friedrich Hayek and Leo Strauss.[1] Cooper and Flanagan had met in the 1960s at Duke University while pursuing doctoral studies, while Knopff and Morton were both mentored by Walter Berns, a prominent Straussian, at the University of Toronto. They were economic, foreign policy, and social conservatives who were anti-abortion and were not in favour of legalizing gay marriage. They supported Stephen Harper in his 1993 election campaign, and former Alberta premiers Ralph Klein and Jason Kenney. A fifth University of Calgary professor, David Bercuson, co-authored publications with Cooper but was more loosely associated with the group and, at times, disagreed with the others on these public policies and candidates.
By 1992, the four professors were influential in the policies of the Reform Party of Canada. The Reform Party had been established in the 1980s, in response to Western Canada's protest against the Progressive Conservative federal government of Brian Mulroney. The party became the Canadian Alliance in 2000, and then merged with the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003 to form the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada.
Flanagan, Morton, Knopff, and Stephen Harper co-signed the January 2001 "Firewall Letter" to then Alberta Premier Ralph Klein calling for major changes in federal-provincial relations that would "insulate" Alberta from the federal government.
Harper who served as Prime Minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015, was associated with the Calgary School in the 1990s and early 2000s, but he distanced himself from Flanagan once he became prime minister.
In 2010, Flanagan said the Calgary School professors and their students had contributed to the rise of conservative ideas in Canada.
In 2018, the four original members of the school received the "Tax Fighter Award" from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.[2]