PARLIAMENT HILL UNITED IN GRIEF
Partisan politics set aside as politicians remember Jim Flaherty.
Parliamentarians and many other Canadians are mourning the death of Jim Flaherty, the green- tied finance minister who was the financial rock of the Conservative government and who always played politics with a smile and a twinkle in his Irish eyes.
Flaherty died Thursday, just a month after he had resigned from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet. He was pronounced dead at his condominium in Ottawa’s Byward Market. Police said he had died of a heart attack. Flaherty was 64, and after nearly two decades in provincial and federal politics, was planning a return to the private sector and to spend more time with his family.
News of his death quickly found its way to Parliament Hill, where members of all parties abandoned the partisan tone that often defines their work. They spoke fondly of Flaherty — not just for his work as finance minister, but the decency that made him such a likable politician. In Canada’s political world, it was truly a death in the family.
“An Irish lion is gone,” said Treasury Board President Tony Clement.
Proceedings of the House of Commons and Senate were suspended for the day and the prime minister, accompanied by his tearful wife, Laureen, spoke briefly to the Conservative caucus. “Dear friends, today is a very sad day for me, for our government and for all of our country,” Harper told the MPs. “I learned a short while ago that our colleague, my partner and my friend, Jim Flaherty, has passed away suddenly today.
“This comes as an unexpected and a terrible shock to Jim’s family, to our caucus and to Laureen and me,” he said, adding that Flaherty — who had been his finance minister for eight years — will be “sorely missed” by MPs from all parties who regarded him with “great respect and affection.”
Harper hugged some of those in the front row, where Tories such as Ontario MP Kellie Leitch were visibly upset. Leitch, who is minister of labour and minister for the status of women, is also a medical doctor. She administered CPR to Flaherty while she waited for paramedics to arrive at his Byward Market residence. Leitch owns a unit in the same condominium complex as Flaherty, and Flaherty had previously consulted with Leitch, a pediatric surgeon, about his health problems. Conservative MP Bernard Trottier told CBC that Leitch had become “an unofficial member of his medical team.”
Leitch’s office declined to provide more information and instead referred to her written statement, which credited Flaherty with helping her launch her political career. “Jim encouraged me to get involved in politics and was the most dedicated mentor that a person could ask for,” Leitch said in that statement. “He was my champion.”
As MPs struggled with the news of Flaherty’s death, it became clear that he was one Conservative who had never alienated his political rivals in a Parliament known for its lack of decorum.
Flaherty had always inspired strong debate about the wisdom of his policies — ranging from tax cuts to cuts in government spending. But he had rarely hurled a nasty or personal blow at his opponents across the aisle.
NDP leader Tom Mulcair was close to tears as he spoke to reporters about Flaherty’s death, calling him an “extraordinarily dedicated public servant.”
“All his colleagues here in the House of Commons share in that loss,” said Mulcair. “He’s a good person. I had a chance to know him before being in federal politics, and he’s a strong, tough character. He’s always been very devoted.”
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who was in Vancouver, issued a news release expressing “shock and sadness.”
In January 2013, Flaherty revealed that he had been battling a rare skin condition, bullous pemphigoid, that causes large blisters on certain areas of the skin. Treatment usually involves powerful steroids that suppress the immune system. In recent months, rumours about his health resurfaced because of his public appearance: Flaherty occasionally walked unsteadily, and his speech was slow and sometimes seemed slurred. He announced his surprise resignation as federal finance minister on March 18, at which point he said he was “on the road to full recovery.”
“It has been an honour to serve Canada. Thank you for the opportunity,” Flaherty last tweeted on the day of his resignation.
Flaherty leaves behind his wife, Christine, and triplet sons: John, Galen, and Quinn. The family released a statement Thursday saying Flaherty “passed away peacefully.”
Former Ontario premier Mike Harris said he had spoken to Flaherty on the telephone Wednesday. “He didn’t sound strong but he talked very positively about the ‘ go forward.’ He was looking forward to spending more time with his family.”
Flaherty arrived in Parliament Hill in 2006 after a decade- long political stint in the Ontario legislature, where he had held several portfolios in Harris’s government, including finance. When Harper took office in 2006 after 13 years of Liberal rule, he turned to Flaherty — his most seasoned provincial politician — to take on the role of finance minister. Flaherty became Harper’s political rock in cabinet — cutting the GST, implementing an unpopular flip- flop on income trusts, and eventually bringing forward a multi- billion- dollar stimulus program in 2009 to battle the global recession.
In recent years, after putting the federal treasury into a record- setting deficit, Flaherty devoted his budgets to erasing the sea of red ink. In his budget this year, Flaherty forecast the government would enjoy a $ 6.4- billion surplus next year. However, he also publicly questioning the wisdom of the government’s plan to introduce income- splitting for families — a position that placed him at odds with other cabinet ministers and even Harper.