Why and How …

 

As in, Why did Jim Flaherty quit as Canada’s Minister of Finance and How did he do during his 8 year term?

Let’s look first at why he did not quit:

1. It was not due to his health, since by all accounts he is well on the mend – plus the heavy lifting in his Portfolio was over …he could have simply cruised to an Election Surplus Budget.
2. It was not because he wanted more time with his wife – since she is a busy Tory MPP in Ontario and is gearing up for a possible Spring Election – and, appears to have plans to try to replace Hudak should he falter in that election.  Not much family time on the horizon for dear Jim.
3. And it is not to give the Prime Minister time to break in his replacement in advance of the 2015 Election.  He has consistently stated that he was in for the long term – i.e. he was determined to stand in his place for his final budget to declare officially that he had at last balanced the budget.
4. And it was not the result of a big job offer on Bay Street.  As a former Finance Minister for the Province of Ontario and now having completed 8 years in the same role for the Feds – the guy could name his price anytime he wants – now or a year from now.

The bottom-line here is that Flaherty is on record as saying he will be in place as Finance Minister for Canada when the 2015 Budget comes now announcing a surplus.  None of numbers 1 to 4 adequately explain his change of heart.

So if not for these reasons,  – then what?

Jason Kenny that’s what.

The two have been duking it out for the P.M.s approval, and dear reader – Jim Flaherty lost that fight.

Two recent examples – first was the tongue lashing Flaherty gave to Kenny for suggesting out loud that Jim’s good friend – bozo Rob Ford was … a bozo.

And more recently, Flaherty opined that the Tory promise to split the incomes of married folks with children, was dead in the water.

Kenny differed on this, even in the face of Harper appearing to side with his Finance Minister.  It then went to caucus and Kenny emerged the winner.

It was then obvious, even to Flaherty, that his star was on the decline.

That dear reader is the reason Flaherty took the bitter walk in the snow… and I suspect it was bitter since in Flaherty’s mind, he had positioned Canada’s economy to be the best in the G-8 or now G-7 and that is the thanks he got.  It had to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.

Plus, in this respect, his health issues may have proved to be partly responsible in that they had to have reduced his resilience and thereby made his decision to abruptly call it quits, in the face of such a humiliation, all the more understandable.

So that is Why…now How did the guy do during his 8 year tenure?

Here are the main pluses from my perspective and they are significant:

1. He reduced the GST from 7 to 5%.
2. He split the pension income of seniors.
3. He brought in the very popular Tax Free Savings Account.

On the negative ledger, there are a number of important matters as well:

1. He cancelled Income Trusts.  He was forced into this since a number of corporations were beginning to unfairly take advantage of this tax reducing provision however, he could have cancelled the program generally but kept it in place for the oil and gas industry which it was initially intended for and for which most investors ?
2. He needlessly plunged Canada into massive Debt / Deficits ostensibly to survive the US / European Financial melt down of 2008.  Canada was virtually untouched by the melt down – for instance only one of our six main Banks was heavily invested in US worthless mortgage bonds – the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He could have pulled a Jean Chretien and go through the motions without actually committing any money to the folly.  That he didn’t and that it has taken most of his tenure to undo the damage that he did is testimony to this folly.
3. He interfered with our Financial Institutions ability to lend mortgage money on at least 4 separate occasions. Again this was to cool off the housing industry which was not hot in the first place – he was confusing the American situation where huge mortgage funds were loaned to migrant workers based on their misguided Government’s Policy.
4. He participated in the massive Auto Bailout of 2008 which admittedly helped GM and Chrysler out of bankruptcy but in so doing  was not fair to other Canadian Auto Taxpayers . Ford, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia etc etc.

Throughout all this Flaherty holds himself out to be a Conservative …in reality he is a Liberal and in that regard have you noticed that the kindest comments for Flaherty, upon hearing of his leaving, have come from the Grits, the Dippers and of course the left leaning Media.

That said, I would give dear Jim an overall mark of B- .

Hopefully the new guy will do much better – the Tory future is dependent upon it.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’