Mr. Speaker, just a few weeks ago, on March 18, when Jim Flaherty retired from politics, we all expressed our best wishes to Jim, Christine, and family for their next promising chapter of life together.

It seems unfair that, so soon afterwards, we now have to say goodbye to this great public servant, husband, and father.

To Christine, Quinn, Galen, and John, while Jim's time with you has been cut tragically short, his legacy, one of his enduring gifts to you, is the example Jim set with his life of public service.

Jim and I sparred in the House and at committee, but away from the spotlight we had a trusted and candid relationship. He used to call himself an old hockey player and he was disciplined enough to be in the MPs' gym just about every morning at 6:30 or before. Jim's locker was near mine in the men's changing area. We would often chat there, sometimes about policy and issues of the day, and we would enjoy a few laughs. Mind you, Jim's Irish sense of humour was tested by me from time to time. Later in the day if I met him when he was surrounded by caucus and cabinet colleagues, I would say, “Jim Flaherty's the first man I see naked every morning”.

Jim was even competitive when he congratulated me on the news of the impending birth of my twins. He winked at me and reminded me, “You know we have triplets”. Even then and to his credit, Jim's greatest pride was his family. Jim was a tough, resilient warrior. He ran in four provincial elections. He lost the first time in 1990, but came back to win in 1995, 1999, and 2003.

He won three federal elections in his riding and he ran in two leadership races. All told, that was about 700 days of campaigning, not including all of the times he campaigned for others. Jim suffered losses, but his defeats neither stopped him nor defined him. He bounced back and went on to bigger and better things.

His life sets a high bar and serves as a lesson to all of us and to his boys that there are no permanent victories or permanent defeats, just permanent battles. Jim never gave up, and all those campaigns, all those battles, prepared him for what was ultimately his biggest battle: Canada's response to the global financial crisis. It was not easy. He faced immense ideological pressure to take a different approach. Ultimately, Jim knew what he had to do; he knew what Canada had to do, and he showed great international leadership in getting the job done.

I met with Jim on January 28 in his office to discuss the upcoming budget and I had not realized until that meeting just how much he was suffering from his illness. Even so, he battled on. He kept working and kept serving the public. Jim believed profoundly in public life. In his own words he probably put it best, “Public service is good for you. It will give your life a greater impact on others and your country.”

The following words by Teddy Roosevelt make me think of Jim.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

On behalf of the leader of the Liberal Party and all of us, goodbye to an old hockey player and a happy warrior.

Thank you, Jim, for your commitment and for everything you did for Canada.

Thank you to Christine, Quinn, Galen, and John for sharing Jim with Canada.

Scott Brison

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