Tom Flanagan, the prime minister's former right-hand man, says the Conservative leader has absolute control

Stephen Harper's former right-hand man says the prime minister has achieved his political success by running the Conservative Party like a war machine.

Tom Flanagan, the University of Calgary political science professor who recently was skewered for calling for the assassination of WikiLeaks operative Julian Assange, has candidly written about the ways in which his former boss has transformed the inner workings of the governing party.

In an article appearing in the latest issue of Inroads, a public policy journal, Flanagan refers to the Conservatives as "a garrison party ... focused on election readiness rather than policy development.

"Message discipline is carefully enforced at all levels and a high level of secrecy surrounds internal deliberations. The overall atmosphere is almost military ..."

According to Flanagan, who managed two of Harper's leadership campaigns as well as the Conservatives' 2004 general election campaign, "Conservative staffers and operatives almost never talk to the press."

Indeed, they "risk loss of employment if they do."

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