Jim Flaherty, one of Canada’s longest serving Ministers of Finance, passed away today after a massive heart attack. He resigned just a month ago, being replaced by Joe Oliver. He had previously served in the Ontario PC government of Mike Harris. He was, by all accounts, a dedicated public servant.
Unquestionably, he leaves a legacy that is to be lauded. He introduced the third Conservative balanced budget in Canadian history, the previous being introduced during the Borden government. After a rocky beginning in the post, during which he managed to unbalance the budget for the first time in nine years, he managed to steer the economy of a G8 country through the economic collapse of 2008. This was no small feat – Canada’s banks, which, along with our resource industry, make up a significant portion of Canada’s economy, were able to weather the storm in far better shape than any of their contemporaries. He orchestrated an economic stimulus plan that was able to stave off the worst potential impacts of the economic disaster.
During his later years at the helm of the Ministry of Finance, he started to put into place a plan that would, eventually (but has not yet, despite some perplexing media reports), lead Canada back to a balanced budget. He was a man that had many tough decisions to make, and he should be admired for the courage and strength that it took to make them.
My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Mr Flaherty.
“Unquestionably, he leaves a legacy that is to be lauded.”
I would say that is very questionable. Flaherty created a massive deficit with $44-billion/yr in “starve the beast” tax cuts. So cleaning up a mess he made by recklessly cutting spending is not much of an accomplishment.