Jim Flaherty, former finance minister of Canada, died Thursday. He was 64.
Mr. Flaherty was finance minister in the government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper until resigning on March 18. He had been finance minister since 2006. Joe Oliver replaced him.
“I am shocked and very saddened to learn that Jim Flaherty passed away. He was an honorable, dedicated and exceptional man who loved Canada,” Mr. Oliver said in a statement on his Twitter account.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported on its website that Mr. Flaherty died of a heart attack Thursday afternoon at his home.
In his resignation statement, Mr. Flaherty said he was stepping down to return to the private sector. He said health was not a factor in his resignation. He remained a member of parliament for the Whitby-Oshawa (Ontario) district.
In December, Mr. Flaherty, along with Kevin Sorenson, Canadian minister of state-finance, and provincial finance ministers, were unable to agree on a national supplemental plan to the C$201.5 billion (US$184.4 billion) Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa. Messrs. Flaherty and Sorenson opposed the plan. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Charles Sousa, Ontario finance minister, established a commission to create a provincial supplement to the CPP; the Ontario proposal is expected to be announced later this spring.
