Feeling sorry for Jimmy

You have to feel sorry for Jim Flaherty, our wonderful Federal FinMin.

He got into Ontario politics in 1995, back in the days of NDP Premier Bob Rae.  Rae was fighting a recession in Ontario and started to spend the budget into the red, resulting in a deficit of about $12 billion.  Driven to the point of madness by the free spending Rae and convinced that he could do better, Jimmy joined Mike Harris in becoming FinMin in the Ontario Commonsense Revolution that led the government to downloading programs and costs to municipalities and a claim to have balanced their budget only to have it revealed that they left a $5.8 billion deficit after they lost power.

That's the guy you want during a crisis!

So here we are, 14 years later and the Feds are facing the same set of circumstances that faced Rae.  What does Flaherty do that was better than Rae to address the situation?  Nothing!

He does the same as did Rae - but he does it, according to him - under duress.  "I didn't want to go into deficit," spouts Jimmy.  It's not his fault that he is a poor minister of finance.  It is the Peter Principle in action.

There are a lot of smart asses out there that are convinced that the sun rises and sets up their butts.  Take for example David "As God is my Witness" Warren.  His Sunday column in the Ottawa Citizen tells the story of three "punks" who tried to jump onto the back door of a Toronto trolley without paying.  The driver confronted the punks by yelling "I am not a liberal."  The punks rapidly departed.  Warren declares that this statement told the punks that the driver was not going to be intimidated by them.  Fair enough.  But it is also possible that the punks interpreted this declaration as a statement that the driver was carrying a gun and was ready to shoot.  Of course Warren, a staunch Conservative and friend to all those who can further his career (like Conrad Black),  would never think of that.