Stephen Harper shrewdly reached across partisan lines in appointing Manitoba's NDP Premier Gary Doer as Canada's new ambassador to Washington, invoking a political theory called "heresthetics."
The theory, which espouses the art of dividing your opponents for political gain, was identified decades ago by the late American political scientist William Riker.
Tom Flanagan lauded the Prime Minister's move yesterday.
"This is the kind of thing that always drew me to Stephen in the first place … his kind of genius for these kinds of unexpected manoeuvres," said Mr. Flanagan, a former mentor and chief of staff to Mr. Harper who teaches political science at the University of Calgary.
"He was always surprising and delighting me with these ideas that he would come up with. And I think this is a winner."
Mr. Flanagan isn't the only one. The Doer appointment is being widely hailed by Harper opponents and friends alike as a brilliant and adroit move. Mr. Doer is smart, good-looking, well spoken and experienced. He is also popular among his provincial and American colleagues.
The appointment also helped to blunt the criticism of the government's partisan Senate appointments the previous day.
Former U.S. ambassador to Canada, Gordon Giffin, a Democrat, called it "an absolutely inspired choice." Even federal NDP Leader Jack Layton, one of the Conservatives' biggest opponents, gushed in a press release about the Doer posting.
Clearly, the Harper play worked.
The 61-year-old Premier, the dean of the premiers who has held his job for 10 years, is to take up his new post in the fall. He replaces Michael Wilson, a former Mulroney cabinet minister who was appointed ambassador by Mr. Harper in March of 2006.
"I was extremely impressed that he did reach across party lines," said Mr. Doer Friday after he met with the Prime Minister in his Parliament Hill office. He said he is a Canadian devoted to public service and can easily work with Mr. Harper.
"The public actually wants all of us from different political parties to compete when we are in election campaigns and to work together in the public interest after campaigns."
Mr. Doer stunned his province and even friends with his sudden announcement Thursday that he was stepping down. Although he flew out of Winnipeg Thursday night on a commercial flight to Ottawa and was spotted having breakfast at a downtown hotel Friday morning, there was no leak of his appointment. He said that he and Mr. Harper have been having a conversation over the past couple of months about this position.
The timing, however, couldn't be more perfect for the Tories - after controversial Senate appointments and just before the Liberals' summer caucus in Sudbury.
Meanwhile, Mr. Flanagan said that heresthetic, or the political art of division, in part involves destabilizing the opposition through the appointments process, such as picking somebody from the opposition side who is willing to work with you at least in a certain forum and promoting him. In that, Mr. Harper found Mr. Doer.
"Harper kind of specializes in trying to split the opposition," said Mr. Flanagan, who said the Prime Minister has an "intuitive flair" for heresthetics. "That is one of his specialties, and he has done it several times and in different ways."
He pointed to the naming of former Chrétien deputy prime minister John Manley in 2007 to head the high-profile independent panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan as another example of Mr. Harper's adroitness.
In the Manley appointment, the Harper government was able to avoid criticism by the Liberals that the Prime Minister was trying to dictate and control the war.
And in terms of "raw politics," Mr. Flanagan said the Doer move splits the NDP.
On one hand, he said, there is the federal NDP and Mr. Layton, with his "vociferous opposition" bragging that he has voted to overthrow the Harper Conservative government on every single non-confidence motion.
"Then suddenly, here is the most successful NDP provincial premier since Roy Romanow taking a Harper appointment. So that tends to undercut Layton's position," Mr. Flanagan said. "What the practical consequences will be I can't say. But certainly I think it's a good manoeuvre in that respect."
So do others. A senior Tory strategist said that the appointment sets up the discussion for the weekend of a "great appointment," making the "Senate critique less relevant."