OTTAWA – Former finance minister Jim Flaherty has passed away.
Police and paramedics were gathered Thursday around a downtown Ottawa condominium.
The House of Commons immediately suspended business.
Flaherty, 64, had been battling a rare skin condition, but insisted upon his surprise resignation last month that his health was not a contributing factor in his decision to step down. He had stayed on as the MP for Whitby-Oshawa, but was not planning to seek re-election.
The former minister was discovered with no vital signs.
Condolences to the Flaherty family.
RIP, Mr. Flaherty. This is a bit of shock to be sure. I remember it was Flaherty’s cowboy tactics against the USA that made me able to stand up and say “Go ahead make my day!” to the US. See
I want also to make what I hope is not an inappropriate comment about the health issues he faced. Flaherty was suffering from bullous pemphigoid, an autoimmune disease that results in blisters to the skin. I recommend for those who are suffering from an autoimmune disease pick up a copy of The Wahls Protocol. Finding a dietary solution, if it works, is preferable to going on prednisone, a very nasty steroid which suppresses the immune system.
It’s too late for Mr. Flaherty, sadly, but anyone reading this hopefully can change their diet and hopefully reverse autoimmune issues.
Any case, our focus is now still on the Tory government and Flaherty’s successor.
Condolences to the Flaherty family. Jim stood his ground and believed in Canadians. he was a good man.
I feel like I have lost a friend that I had a falling out with.
Sad. He deserved a bit of a reprieve and rest considering what he’d been through.
If it was indeed a heart attack, small wonder. He had a very stressful job, was quite ill in the recent past and stress does terrible things to the body. Evidence now suggestions that it is the elevated cortisol levels brought on by stress that cause cholesterol to form the plaque that plugs up arteries.
He did what he could while in office. It’s more than what most do. RIP.
I am truly sad to hear this news. While I disagreed with many of Jim Flaherty’s policies, he always struck me as a gentlemen without a nasty bone in his body — something which I don’t think I could say of very many of his front-bench colleagues in that government. It is always sad when someone dies before their time, but I find it especially sad that after years of what had to be a stressful job under any Prime Minister not to mention the current one, he never had any time to enjoy retirement or a new life with his friends and family.
RIP and my unqualified condolences to his family.
Other comments at another thread, including mine: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/04/10/how-the-u-s-pulled-off-the-great-canadian-privacy-giveaway/comment-page-1/#comment-1412044
RIP, Mr. Flaherty and sincere condolences to the Flaherty family and friends and colleagues.
I am surprised at the level of sadness I feel. Though I personally believe (and have said so) that I don’t think Mr. Flaherty agreed with FATCA/IGA and that it must have been awful to feel powerless in one’s job at such a major level, against the US.
It’s his family who loses the most. Waiting all those years for him to step down, have more time for them. He does just that, and then, he is taken away. That is painful beyond belief.
Something I think I could learn from him – it is possible to be vehemently against the ideas of someone else, argue with them and yet, at the end of the day, to shake hands and not hold anything against anyone.
RIP JIm Flaherty and sincere condolences to the family
He was one of those public servants who always tried hard to do what he believed was right.
RIP Jim Flaherty. He was a good guy. I’m familiar with his career going back about 20 years and supported him for leadership of the provincial party in ’02. I remember in the dark dark days following my OMG moment, his anti-FATCA letter to the US newspapers was like a ray of light.
Two very important reminders;
1.) No doubt that he was under great stress. The US, the sitting Canadian Government and Flaherty himself has been putting upwards of 1 million Canadians under life threatening stress. A reminder to put that stress in perspective, it kills. Canadians will die prematurely because of the above actions, some by forced poor health and some no doubt will take their own lives. It is helpful to recognize the problem.
2.) We do not know when we will be called by God, but we must always think as to how we will be remembered or want to be remembered by those still here. The final acts of Flaherty on this earth was to make the lives of many of his living countrymen a living hell. It did not need to be that way but that is the path he chose and he will be remembered by this final betrayal of his countrymen irrespective of his previous statements.
I “dance on no mans grave.” I have in my prayers forgiven this man for the harm he has done as scripture teaches that must be done, his actions were “two faced” which Scripture specifically references. He has sinned because of this but I too have sinned and sin every day and every hour, my own sin is as wretched as his.
But the history has been written by his own hand and he had a choice to make in life. This man died knowing what he had done, would he have preferred with that last breath to have kept to the faithful promise of the past to his countrymen? He could have saved his brother/sister Canadians, instead he saved the Banks, thats the history he has written, his final actions.
This is sad news. Perhaps if Mr. Flaherty’s health had been better he would have been able to maintain that feisty anti-FATCA stance he started out with. They wore him down and out I’m sure. I really feel bad for his family and friends who must have been looking forward to having more of him, after he was free of his government duties.
At least he stood up against FATCA by placing an open letter in American newspapers in an effort to stop this law. He’ll be remembered for his true feelings rather than being bullied by Harper to accept FATCA. His family should take be proud of his efforts.
Jim Flaherty was the one star among a field of also-rans. He is the one person to emerge from his time in office with his reputation enhanced. As noted by others, Canada was pushed unwillingly into FATCA/ IGA. I will particularly remember Mr. Flaherty as a man of integrity. Rest in peace, Jim Flaherty. You did what you could, and more. Condolences to your family.
I tend to agree with Em, Don & MM
When he retired I hoped that one day he would write his memoirs and we would learn his true feelings about Canada signing the IGA which has betrayed us. Was he pressured more by Harper or the US? Now we may never know.
He appeared so unwell over the last number of months. It must have been hard for him to stand in the House of Commons and and weakly defend the IGA with his statement that “we fixed” the concerns about the IGA and not answering the question about our Charter rights.
Here is an article about how Jim Flaherty Was A Man Whose Humanity Trumped Politics written by a former London Liberal MP.
Glen Pearson writes: Regardless of where one stands in their opinion of Jim Flaherty he was an emotional man who transferred those emotions to love of country…Jim Flaherty was a man of full emotion, but in the end he was a human being capable of depth and empathy.
I think Flaherty had that depth and empathy for us. I just wish he could have carried it through to a different conclusion.
The news of Jim Flaherty’s death is, indeed, very, very, sad. I have a file full of his replies to my letters, most of them similar boilerplate to those I have read here. But there was always a personal introduction at the top which made me certain that he had, in fact, read with his own eyes the letter he was answering. Amongst the many things I regret with regard to Mr. Flaherty I regret not being able to read his autobiography in 20 years’ time. I so wish we could all know what it was that caused him to put his hand to the document that we are all now fighting with all the means in our possession. I guess we will never know. My heart goes out to his devastated family.
No disrespect to Mr Flaherty, but the Obama administration is hell bent on giving all the world’s finance ministers heart failure:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/03/31/u-s-may-refuse-to-sign-an-agreement-with-russia-on-fatca/comment-page-2/#comment-1416645
I have never voted Conservative, but I respected Mr. Flaherty. (I did not respect his boss.) Readers of the IBS outside Canada are unlikely to know that one of his initiatives was creation of the Registered Disability Savings Plan, which assists parents of disabled children to put finances in place to insure their children have an adequate income once their parents are gone.
The former minister was discovered with no vital signs.
Truth will out.
Take a look around. Communities outside Brock are expressing sentiments quite other than the aw-shucks well-he’s-gone-now think-of-something-nice-to-say that prevails here.
Competence amounts to more than leaking the fact that you once wrote a letter that no U.S. media would publish. “See, I tried.”
“At least he stood up against FATCA by placing an open letter in American newspapers in an effort to stop this law.”
When the rubber meets the road – the ultimate action that defined his entire legacy was that he threw all of us with even the barest hint of US indicia to the dogs. That deserves NO forgiveness on my part. My wife doesn’t have the $$$$ to have her taxes done by any competent accountant to try to get in “compliance”. What we have goes to supporting our family. We’re not rich by any means of the word. My wife hasn’t gone on vacation outside of our home these past 7 years that she has worked in Canada. I work as a photographer, but by no means am I rich. In fact I bring in less than her retail job. The last time I took my blood pressure, it was at 153 over 101 as a result of this FATCA bulls***. So do I forgive Jim Flaherty? No, I sure as hell don’t. He had a cushy pension to fall back on.
We can’t even retire.
Furthermore, the continued stress from this FATCA bullshit will continue to have adverse effects on people’s physical health and mental well-being as long as the US continues to go about their bullying tactics of draconianly punishing and economically crippling penalties against what they consider as willfully non-compliant. My sympathy goes out to those who, like us, cannot afford the significant costs of a competent U.S. tax regime – familiar tax accountant to be able to get their back-taxes in order and who may still run the risk of significant fines, enough to put them in poverty for the rest of their lives; not to someone who had the opportunity to do the right thing and knuckled under. If you intend to be considered as someone who stood up for your principles; you stick by them until the bitter end. You get thrown out of your own party, but you don’t knuckle under to what your party wants…and THAT unfortunately for Jim Flaherty, is what he did.
You bet I’m angry. I’m beyond furious and enraged. I was born in this country to Canadians who had absolutely no connection to the United States and before I was married or if I had married a Canadian, I wouldn’t have even been on the radar to the United States. But because I’m married to a person with US indicia (whom I love very much and would do everything in my power to protect); I am now what’s considered a US person for tax purposes. It was Jim Flaherty’s job to protect people like me, people like calgary411’s son (anyone who were born here and otherwise have no other connection to the United States other than through their mother or father). Did he do that? The answer is an ultimate NO regardless of how he felt. The upshot is that he threw all of us under the bus and there is no forgiveness allowable for that.
As of 2008, Cabinet Ministers (with portfolio) had $74,400 to fall back on as a pension. That’s 3.5 times what my wife makes in one full year of getting spotty shifts thanks to the company’s retail shift policy of part-time and that and what meagre amount I earn – is what supports our family. We have no savings. What we earn goes to put food in our children’s stomachs and clothes on our children’s backs. After that, what the hell is there left? But we thank the fact that we’re working and not falling back on the social assistance umbrella. I’d rather starve than “not work”. It’s a matter of pride.
I don’t have investments for the future. We can’t afford it. All we can do is give our kids the best possible leg up and hope that they can “fly” on their own. What happens to us after that…well…that’s up to “whoever is in control”. All I know is that I’ll be working as long as I can stay on two feet.
Our politicians are accountable to us. And no matter what anyone might say. The politicians in control of our government have not been doing a good job. PERIOD! And “us”, not the United States, is who Jim Flaherty was ultimately accountable to. And in that regard. HE FAILED MISERABLY. So forgive me if I’m not going to applaud his efforts, but after what my family has been through these past few years, I’m NOT IN A FORGIVING MOOD!
Lessons I learned in kindergarten, if you can’t find something nice to say about somebody don’t say anything at all.
@Animals comment:ditto