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Remembering
Jim Flaherty, “the Best Finance Minister in the World”
April 10th–16th, 2014
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper:
There are so many ways I could
describe the Honourable Jim Flaherty.
He was a man who was highly
principled and ruthlessly pragmatic, combative but engaging, smart and
educated, while never assuming that he knew it all.
He could be hard-headed, yet also
soft-hearted.
He could display a quick and
biting temper, but far more often a deep and gentle sense of humour.
He particularly enjoyed and
delivered many jokes about his own shortness.
He quipped that he never got in
the way of his own PowerPoints.
But, short as he was, upon the
world stage he often strode like a giant.
As a human being he was the
complete package.
And he especially believed in a
hand up for those who needed, but only lacked, opportunity, which is why he had
such a particular passion for, among others, the disabled.
The relationship between a Prime
Minister and his Finance Minister is always a special one.
But this, I can tell you, was
more special than most.
Yet, let me tell you, when it
mattered Jim was always up to it.
He always came to our budget
meetings prepared, ready to play the game, and always willing to mix it up in
the corners.
And in the process, year after
year, he deliberately set aside his own plans and put off his goals for his
family.
Why? Why did he do that?
Because at heart, Jim wasn’t in
this, as is the stereotype, for money or for power.
Jim was driven by conviction, of
loyalty to the cause and of duty to the country.
He believed he had taken on a
responsibility for all of our families, not just his own. And he was prepared to make sacrifices,
ultimately, although he did not know it himself, to sacrifice himself.
And I told Jim that he had truly
been over these eight years, in my judgment, the best Finance Minister in the
world, if not indeed, the best in our history.
So, one more word for those, and
this time specifically for John, Galen and Quinn, ‘the boys,’ as your father
always called you.
You are no longer ‘the boys’.
You are young men.
Hold on to your mother, hold on
to your father’s lessons, and hold to the knowledge that there are many present
and beyond who are there for you and will be there for you as you continue on
your own journeys.
And, I say once again, from
Laureen and my family and from all my colleagues, God bless you, the family,
and farewell to our dear friend, Jim.
On behalf of a grateful country,
we thank you.
Kellie
Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women:
He loved his country and served
it with a heart as big as the country itself.
The gap he has left will not soon
be filled.
So my friend may the road rise up
to meet you. May the wind be always at
your back. May the sun shine warm upon
your face. May the rain fall upon your
fields. And until we meet again, may God
hold you in the hollow of his hands.
To my dear friend Jim, I loved
you immensely my fierce friend, and I will miss you forever. |
