A giant of the Harper-era in Canadian politics was born on this date in 1949, in Lachine, Quebec. Jim Flaherty, who earned the respect of fellow politicians of all stripes during his storied life and career, attended high school in Montreal.  He went on to attend Princeton University and often spoke, years later, of seeing his political hero, Bobby Kennedy, speak on campus.He obtained a law degree at York University and practiced for 20 years, in Toronto.  Flaherty first ran for a seat in the Ontario Legislature, unsuccessfully, in 1990.  Five years later, however, he was elected and was named to cabinet by Premier Mike Harris. Among the posts Harris assigned him were Minister of Finance, Attorney General and Deputy Premier.Flaherty moved to federal politics in 2006 and Whitby-Oshawa voters sent him to the House of Commons as an MP.  Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper appointed Flaherty Minister of Finance and he served in that post for eight years. Along the way, he helped anchor the Harper government and was credited – along with PM Harper – for successfully guiding Canada through the 2008 financial crisis. Flaherty retired from cabinet in 2014 of his own accord and, sadly, passed into history less than a month later. I had the honour and privilege of serving as a contract speechwriter to this wonderful man and grew to greatly admire him. He very much enjoyed quoting fellow Irishmen like Thomas D’Arcy McGee and Bobby Kennedy in some of the addresses we worked on together. As Sir John A. Macdonald said of Thomas D’Arcy McGee at the latter’s death, “His heart was made for friendship.”  That too described the man and friend to many that was Jim Flaherty. Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.