If the Common Sense Revolution of former Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris had been a religion, then Jim Flaherty's title would have been Defender of the Faith.

Flaherty was a true believer in the revolution. That's what Harris, who took power in 1995, called his plan to revitalize Ontario's economy and the provincial government's fiscal health with a harsh, neo-conservative prescription of cutting taxes, government spending and red tape.

Implementing the revolution saw the Harris government clash with teachers' unions, anti-poverty activists and squeegee kids in the process, but it did win the party a second majority government in 1999 before the Liberals replaced the Tories in 2003.

"There's no doubt he was very supportive of that agenda," John Williamson of The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation told CTV.ca about Flaherty.

During the 2006 federal election, former Liberal leader Paul Martin called Flaherty "Mike Harris Plus."

Flaherty -- a 56-year-old, Montreal-born, Princeton-educated lawyer -- ran for the Ontario party's leadership in 2002 and 2004, defending the revolution's principles.

"We can finish what Mike Harris started. (Ontario) will welcome the free but not the freeloaders," Flaherty said at the 2002 Ontario PC leadership convention, where his slogan was "The Right Stuff."

Twice the party rebuffed him, choosing ideological moderates instead.

Jim Stanford, an economist with the Canadian Autoworkers, thinks that happened for good reason.

"In 2002, when Harris was stepping down, Flaherty positioned himself explicitly as carrying the torch of the Common Sense Revolution," he told CTV.ca. "Tory delegates understood that was certain electoral defeat, because after seven years, Ontario voters were getting tired of public restraint, unmet needs and the harsh ideology that the Harris government was promoting."

Flaherty now represents Whitby-Oshawa as an MP, not Whitby-Ajax as an MPP. He lives with his wife and their teenage triplet boys in Whitby, a middle-class community about 50 kilometres east of Toronto.

"He gets a lot of the issues in terms of a taxpayer's point of view. He's in tune with the values of what I call Middle Canada, which tend to focus on family budgets and some of the struggles of people across this country face when it comes to paying their bills, putting a roof over their head, getting their kids to school, et cetera, et cetera," Williamson said.

Stanford said the reality for most people is low wages in the first place, not "the taxman taking it all away."

Flaherty's provincial career

As finance minister of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative minority government, Flaherty is about to deliver his government's first federal budget.

He brings a substantial amount of government experience to the process. Some of the provincial portfolios he held in cabinet under Premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves over an eight-year period include:

• Minister of Labour (1997)
• Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Native Affairs (1999)
• Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for SuperBuild Corporation (2001)
• Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation (2002; Eves)

"(Flaherty's) also a bit of a maverick. He's not a yes man, which makes his pick interesting. His record at Queen's Park shows that as well," Williamson said.

As attorney-general, Flaherty brought in a law banning the so-called squeegee kids who wash car windows at intersections for small change. Flaherty also proposed making sleeping on the streets illegal.

When Eves left the Harris government as finance minister in 2001 and Harris tapped Flaherty to replace him, Flaherty brought in a now-repealed tuition tax credit for parents wishing to send their children to private or religious schools worth up to $3,500.

A Toronto Star editorial called the policy "an idea lifted from the Canadian Alliance platform," (incidentally, Flaherty was a big supporter of the unite-the-Right movement) but it won praise from Williamson.

"That kind of measure that gives parents more choice and more say in how their kids are educated is exactly the kind of policy we want to have government pursue," he said, adding Harris wasn't really behind the policy until Flaherty sold it to him.

Williamson compared that policy to the new federal Tory plan to pay children $1,200 per child under six to help offset childcare costs.

"Mr. Flaherty in addition to implementing the fiscal component of the Conservative platform, will not be afraid to promote ideas that he thinks are important around the cabinet table and, as well, to the prime minister. And these are signs of a strong finance minister," Williamson said.

Stanford said both the private school tax credit and the Conservative "baby bonus" use the same argument: "In the name of private choice, they de-fund the public system. At the end of the day, it's only those with money who will have a choice. The rest of us will have an inadequate system to use, whether it's education or child care."

When the Harris Conservatives first took over in Ontario, they inherited a terrible fiscal situation from the NDP, who in turn had to govern through a vicious recession. That made it easier to build public support for some of the Tories' harsher policies.

In comparison, the Harper Conservatives inherit a government awash in surplus, with the Liberals constantly exceeding their projected surpluses in recent years.

"It's much different now. We're not going to see the kinds of cutbacks that we saw in Ontario," Williamson said, although his group did expect the Conservatives to move ahead on tax relief.

Not the real first budget

Next week's budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year, while the first of the new government, won't be definitive. The true first budget of the Harper government will come in the 2007-08 fiscal year, Williamson said.

"What's coming next week is something that's been put together very quickly because they are a new government. They haven't had a chance to rethink how government works in Ottawa. And I believe over the next year, they will look at some of the more fundamental questions about the relationship between government and taxpayers, and how government both collects revenues and spends money."

When that happens, Flaherty will be a key player, as will John Baird, another Common Sense Revolution supporter appointed Treasury Board president by Harper, Lawrence Martin, a Globe and Mail columnist, told CTV.ca.

Martin also identifies Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and Sen. Michael Fortier, the public works minister, as key Harper lieutenants.

He too thinks the real budgets of this government are yet to come, primarily because it is in a minority situation.

"What (Harper's) doing so far is not a heavily conservative agenda that annoys moderate Canadians. Of course, this is a moderate country, and the bulk of the population is moderate in their views. Mr. Harper is aware of this, and given this minority situation, he's not going to throw much red meat on the table to scare away the moderates."

If the Tories form a majority and Flaherty is given free reign to shape the budget, Stanford has this prediction: "He will move very powerfully to reward high-income earners and corporations with tax cuts and other measures. It won't be a pretty picture for the rest of us."