TIMELINE & BIOGRAPHY: Long-serving financing minister Jim Flaherty
Posted April 10, 2014 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Former federal finance minister Jim Flaherty has passed away at the age of 64.
Flaherty, who represented the Whitby-Oshawa federal riding, was an Member of Parliament from 2006 to 2014, and a Member of Provincial Member from 1995 until 2005.
He served as the provincial finance minister from 2001 to 2002 and the federal finance minister from 2006 to 2014.
On March 18, Flaherty announced he was leaving the federal cabinet after more than eight years as finance minister to prepare for a return to the private sector. He had been Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s only finance minister.
Flaherty was among Canada’s longest-serving finance ministers, appointed to the key economic post when the Conservative government first came to power in 2006.
Before he stepped down, he announced he suffered from a rare skin condition that requried him to take medication that led to weight gain and apparent fatigue in public appearances.
Flaherty leaves behind his widow Christine Elliott, also a lawyer and a politician. She ran and won provincially in Flaherty’s old riding when he resigned to seek a federal seat, leaving the couple representing essentially the same region in the legislature and the Commons.
They have three triplet sons — John, Galen and Quinn.
Below is a biographical overview:
Born in Lachine, Que., on Dec. 30, 1949. He grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in Montreal. When he was young, Flaherty was an avid hockey player.
Attended Bishop Whelan High School and Loyola High School in Montreal and earned a BA at Princeton University and a law degree from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
Founding partner of the firm Flaherty Dow Elliott before going into politics in 1990, when he ran and lost provincially in the riding of Durham Centre. He ran again in 1995, and won a seat in the legislature in the Whitby-Ajax riding.
Entered Mike Harris’ cabinet in 1997 as minister of labour. He also served as minister of finance, attorney general, finance minister, enterprise minister and deputy premier under Harris and his successor, Ernie Eves.
In 2006, after two unsuccessful bids to lead the Ontario Conservatives, Flaherty jumped to federal politics, winning the riding of Whitby-Oshawa in the Jan. 23 election that gave Harper and the Conservatives their first minority government. Harper gave him the Finance portfolio.
Finance minister portfolio:
Embarked on a program that focused on tax cuts. He began in 2006 by cutting the GST by one percentage point to six per cent. He pared off another percentage point in 2008.
In 2006, he also announced changes to the tax rules governing income trusts which sparked anger and prompted special hearings by the Commons finance committee.
In 2007, he introduced the Registered Disability Savings Plan to help Canadians with disabilities and their families save for retirement. One of Flaherty’s three sons has a mental disability and the minister wept openly when he announced the plan.
In 2008, he announced the Tax-Free Savings Account, which allows people to earn tax-free investment income.
In his 2013 budget, he boasted that the average family of four was saving $3,220 in taxes compared with their bill in 2006.
