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Tom Flanagan ‘a good fit’ for Squamish Nation

Academic with ‘concerning views’ advising First Nation on land development

He thinks colonialism was justified. He's said aboriginal government is "wasteful" and "destructive." He's been called a racist with antiquated views on Canada's First Peoples.

And now, he counts Sea to Sky's most prominent First Nation among his listeners.

His name is Tom Flanagan and he's known best as the national campaign manager for the Conservative Party of Canada when it came to power in the 2006 election. He has since become a regular commentator in outlets such as CTV, the Globe and Mail and the National Post , writing columns and offering analysis on political programs such as Question Period.

Corridor residents now know him as a consultant to the Squamish Nation in its attempts to develop reserve land in North Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast.

It's at his advice that the Squamish are now seeking their own property transfer tax that could put them on a level playing field with the real estate market.

The Squamish Nation sought Flanagan's help to develop 800,000 square feet of residential space at its Capilano reserve in North Vancouver, accompanying commercial space at the Park Royal Shopping Centre. Later developments will include a townhouse complex in Gibsons, as well as residences, offices and commercial space in Squamish and Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood.

The First Nation contacted a consultant legal firm in Ottawa that knew Flanagan well, according to Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacob.

"They knew his views around economic development on First Nation land," he said. "They thought that because Mr. Flanagan is a Conservative that given this type of approach and his ties with the Conservatives would be a good fit for us."

Outside his political life, Flanagan has devoted decades of scholarly research to issues and events surrounding Canada's aboriginal peoples. In 1977 he co-edited a volume of poems by Louis Riel, the Métis activist and politician who led the Red River and Northwest Rebellions in the late 19 th century.

That work helped lay the foundation for the "Louis Riel Project," in which Flanagan and five others collected and published all the rebel's writings in 1985 to mark the centennial of the Northwest Rebellion.

Flanagan later turned his attention to First Nation land claims and self-government. In 2002 he published First Nations? Second Thoughts , a book that challenged what he called an "aboriginal orthodoxy" that emerged from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, a commission convened in 1991 after the fallout over the Oka Crisis and the Meech Lake Accord.

The commission, meant to establish a new relationship between First Nations and the federal government, came up with recommendations to recognize a third-order aboriginal government alongside the feds and the provinces.

The new relationship would see aboriginal governments recognized as a third order of government, alongside federal and provincial governments, and see First Nations deal with government on a nation-to-nation basis.

Flanagan's book challenged this new orthodoxy and argued that developing a third order of government was the wrong way to go.

"The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples promoted a vision of self-government which I think was pointing in the wrong direction," he said in an interview. "The aboriginal self-governments, in practice, they're more like a special kind of local government.

"They have to deal with issues that local governments deal with, infrastructure and services for a local population, but they have to go in a different legal direction."

His book challenged the commission's contention that aboriginal governments should act like nations, collecting taxes from their own people and getting transfer payments from other governments to take financial responsibility of their own governments and services.

Some aboriginal organizations didn't take kindly to that. When Flanagan took up the reins as National Campaign Chair for the Conservatives in the 2004 election, a joint letter between the Assembly of First Nations, the Metis National Council and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami demanded that then-Opposition Leader Stephen Harper explain whether he lined up with Flanagan's views.

The letter accused Flanagan of holding "ill-informed, regressive and offensive" views about First Nations and arguing that "the best approach for Aboriginal policy is full and outright assimilation."

"The reality is that if Flanagan was making these kinds of statements about any other group in Canada - Jewish, Italian, French - he would not be given a senior role in a major national party and would more likely be exiled into the political wilderness," then-AFN Chief Phil Fontaine said in the letter.

Flanagan doesn't challenge too vehemently the charges made in that letter.

"What I said is that aboriginal people will never be prosperous and self-determining until they can participate in a political system in the same way that other people do," he said.

"It doesn't mean they have to give up a separate identity, there's no particular problem in a free society with groups cherishing their history and their traditions, but you don't actually become prosperous and self-supporting until people are able to hold jobs or invest or participate in the market.

"If you call that assimilation, well yes, then I believe in assimilation, but I think the Squamish probably do too and I think that's what they're trying to do."

Jacob admitted being troubled by Flanagan's views, though he hasn't read his books.

"I didn't even read them, but I was made aware of his points of view," Jacob said. "Obviously troubling, but nevertheless, we have to look at the big picture for our people."

Flanagan started work with the Squamish Nation last July, the first time he's performed such consulting work with a First Nation. He spent months performing documentary research and finalized a report in November: "Unlocking the Value: The Squamish Nation's Land Development Plans."

In it he recommended that the Squamish Nation seek a property transfer tax, which would flow directly to the First Nation and help pay for use of the province's land title registry as well as infrastructure on reserve. The report gave Flanagan his first chance to apply his ideas to a First Nation.

"They're not demanding reparations, they're not saying you stole something from us in the past," he said. "They're just saying we've got this land and we want to make the best use of it.

"(They're saying) give us a chance, give us a legal framework that allows us to compete. I think that's the correct way forward."

Jacob, meanwhile, praises the work that Flanagan has done for the Squamish. Hiring him has no doubt raised some eyebrows, but if nothing else it should indicate how serious the First Nation is about developing its lands.

"We're very happy with his product."