Compassionate voice falls silent Michael Den Tandt
Grew in offi ce: Flaherty started career as partisan brawler, but developed into congenial but competent fi nance minister
Jim Flaherty’s untimely and sudden passing at the age of 64 marks the end of an era in Canadian and Ontario politics. It leaves the federal Conservative movement bereft of one of its most experienced, wise and compassionate voices. Flaherty was one of those rare politicians who grew while in office, both in the breadth of his vision of the country, and his approach to the work of politics itself.
His death, which comes just a month after he stepped down from cabinet, is sure to be taken as another indicator of the toll that public life can exact. Flaherty’s passing, widely reported Thursday to be the result of a heart attack, will hit all the harder because of the stoicism he displayed these past 18 months, soldiering on despite suffering from a painful and rare skin disorder, bullous pemphigoid, that required treatment with steroids and at times made it difficult for him to speak and move.
Flaherty disclosed the nonlifethreatening condition in January 2013. Though some suggested he might step aside then, he was determined to stay on until federal finances were back in balance. He fell just short of that goal but not before ensuring the government would show a surplus in the 2015 budget, before the next federal election.
As a younger man Flaherty was a key member of the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government in Ontario. He entered Harris’s cabinet in 1997, serving first as labour minister, then in a series of senior roles including attorney general and deputy premier. During those years Flaherty earned a reputation as a pit bull and brawler, and was considered to be among the more ideological members of Harris’s government.
After twice trying and twice failing to win the Ontario Tory leadership, Flaherty entered federal politics in 2006, winning a seat in Whitby- Oshawa, contiguous with his former provincial seat. The new finance minister, who was fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, arrived in Ottawa with his reputation for pugnacity intact. He then proceeded, over a period of years, to reinvent himself as a moderate.
His approach to crafting budgets, often rife with targeted tax breaks, was cluttered but proved popular with ordinary Canadians. He spent far more than doctrinaire conservatives might have liked, adding more than $ 150 billion to the federal debt following the global economic downturn in 2008.
That recession was a turning point for Flaherty professionally. His subsequent 2009 budget plunged the country more than $ 50 billion into deficit but, he later argued, insulated Canadians from the worst effects of the global downturn. That later became a point of pride for him.
Flaherty was above all a nononsense retail politician, who intuitively understood what would connect politically, and what wouldn’t, especially in Ontario. Over the years this led him repeatedly to appear more moderate than some of his colleagues. In a government known for intense partisanship, Flaherty was congenial, respected and liked across the aisle.
His centrist sensibility may be why, in February, in delivering what he knew would be his last budget — his decision to step down was made last Christmas — he broke with cabinet discipline and criticized a key Conservative promise of the 2011 election, income- splitting. The tax cut, due to come into effect when the federal budget is balanced, has been widely panned as being a benefit only to those wealthy enough to live in a one income family.
Though Flaherty’s act of rebellion was played down by the government, it was clear there was a difference of opinion within the Conservative caucus between him and social conservatives, led by Employment Minister Jason Kenney, about whether income- splitting should remain a key party policy. Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Flaherty’s successor at Finance, Joe Oliver, have suggested incomesplitting is still on offer, though they have been somewhat cagey in doing so, leaving a slim possibility the policy may yet go by the wayside.
To his colleagues, Flaherty is remembered as a hard- working, public- spirited and honest man who never forgot his roots. He grew up in Montreal, loved playing hockey, earned a bachelor’s degree at Princeton and a law degree from Osgoode Hall. At one point he earned his living by driving a cab, an experience he later said helped form his work ethic. He and his wife, Christine Elliott, an Ontario MPP, have three grown sons, triplets John, Galen and Quinn.
Flaherty was a favourite of caucus mates, who cited his unassuming manner and approachability. He was a private man but took in hockey games when he could with friends and colleagues, and usually one or more of his sons. That said, a lifetime in politics took its toll on him physically. Colleagues said his death was all the more tragic, in that he was poised to slow down and enjoy the fruits of a more lucrative, and less frenetic job in the private sector.
“I knew he was having some health issues,” said one MP and friend, still in shock at the news. “I sure didn’t think it would end this way.”