Behind Stephen Harper" said that the "Calgary School" which included Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff, Ted Morton, David Bercuson, and Barry Cooper, was a politically conservative group supporting "a rambunctious, Rocky Mountain brand of libertarianism" that seeks "lower taxes, less federal government, and free markets unfettered by social programs such as medicare that keep citizens from being forced to pull up their own socks." By 2006, there were tensions between the socially conservative and economically conservative factions within the school. Bercuson publicly criticized Morton's social policies, saying "[they] were hard to stomach for a libertarian." Ted Morton had served in Progressive Conservative government of Alberta cabinet as finance minister in the Ed Stelmach government and energy minister in the first Alison Redford-led government. From about 2006 on, Prime Minister Harper and his caucus were often "at odds with" Flanagan. When Flanagan was criticized for his "glib" remarks "calling for the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange", the Conservative party representative said that "Flanagan speaks for himself. He doesn't speak for the government and he hasn't advised the PM for years. I certainly don't share his views." In his 2010 response to an article in the Literary Review of Canada, Flanagan said that conservatives were winning the war of ideas in Canada. He wrote that, while the Calgary School of political science – "Barry Cooper, Ted Morton, Rainer Knopff and I, along with our historian outrider David Bercuson" – did not cause this transformation, they had, along with their students, "played an honourable part in making it happen." Tom Flanagan remembered Danielle Smith as was one of his most promising students in his statistics class at the University of Calgary. In a 2009 interview, Flanagan remembered her as one of his best students. Flanagan became Smith's campaign manager in her 2012 Alberta general election campaign, running for the Wildrose Party. He played a "pivotal behind-the-scenes role in transforming his former pupil into premier of Alberta." Smith lost the election to the Progressive Conservative candidate Alison Redford. In 2013, Flanagan was still a political scientist and author who was respected by many . He was a "sought-after commentator in the media with a regular spot on CBC Television, and an effective Conservative political activist who had once served as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff." All that ended abruptly in the wake of controversial comments he had made in Lethbridge following his