Editing Jim Flaherty (section)

== Provincial political career (1995–2005) ==

=== Cabinet ===
He was named [[Ministry of Labour (Ontario)|Minister of Labour]] in the [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]] of [[List of Ontario Premiers|Premier]] [[Mike Harris]] on October 10, 1997, and kept this position until after the [[1999 Ontario general election|1999 election]]. He also served as interim [[Solicitor General of Ontario|Solicitor General]] and [[Ministry of Correctional Services|Minister of Correctional Services]] from April 27 to July 27, 1998.<ref name="20years=trinh" />

Flaherty was re-elected in the [[1999 Ontario general election|1999 election]] in the redistributed riding of Whitby–Ajax, and was named [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]] with responsibility for [[Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs (Ontario)|Native Affairs]] on June 17, 1999. On February 8, 2001, he was appointed [[Ministry of Finance (Ontario)|Minister of Finance]] and [[Deputy Premier of Ontario|Deputy Premier]]. He was a key promoter of tax credits for parents sending their children to private and denominational schools, which the Tories had campaigned against in 1999.<ref name="20years=trinh" /> In June 2001, Flaherty was evicted from his constituency office in a theatrical action by [[Ontario Coalition Against Poverty]] which aimed to bring home the effects of his policies.<ref name="Deed">{{cite journal |last1=Coulter |first1=Kendra |title=Solidarity in Deed: Poor People's Organizations, Unions, and the Politics of Antipoverty Work in Ontario |journal=Anthropology of Work Review |date=December 2012 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=101–112 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-1417.2012.01083.x}}</ref>

=== 2002 Ontario PC leadership bid ===
Flaherty ran to succeed Harris in the [[2002 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election|2002 PC leadership election]], but lost to frontrunner [[Ernie Eves]], his predecessor as finance minister. Flaherty's campaign featured attacks on Eves, calling him a "serial waffler" and a "pale, pink imitation of Dalton McGuinty".<ref>[http://www.sesresearch.com/news/in_the_news/NationalPostJ31.pdf "Flaherty gets personal with attack on Eves"], ''[[National Post]]'', January 31, 2002</ref><ref name="20years=trinh" />

Flaherty's leadership campaign focused on "law and order" themes, and one of his proposals was to make [[homelessness]] illegal. His purported plan was to have special constables encourage homeless persons to seek out shelters or hospitals. He argued that his policy would save the lives of homeless persons; leadership rival [[Elizabeth Witmer]] and other critics described it as callous, and ineffective against the root causes of homelessness.<ref>{{cite news |title= Activist thought Flaherty joking |author= Heather Capannelli |page= A5 |newspaper= The Globe and Mail|date= February 16, 2002}}</ref><ref name="20years=trinh" />

Flaherty also promised to implement further [[tax cut]]s, carry through with plans to create a tax credit for parents sending their children to private school, and [[privatization|privatizing]] the [[Liquor Control Board of Ontario]]. Flaherty also emerged as a [[social conservative]] in this campaign, particularly a staunch stance against [[abortion]] and his association with [[anti-abortion]] groups. On April 15, 2002, Eves demoted him to the less-prominent position of Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation. Flaherty retained this position until the Tories were defeated in the [[2003 Ontario general election|provincial election of 2003]]. Flaherty himself was re-elected by a reduced margin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/ontariovotes2003/riding/096/ |title=Ontario Votes 2003: Whitby-Ajax |publisher=CBC.ca |date=2003-10-02 |access-date=2014-04-11}}</ref><ref name="20years=trinh" />

=== Opposition and 2004 Ontario PC leadership bid ===
Following the defeat of the Conservatives, Eves announced that he would resign as leader in 2004. Flaherty declared himself a candidate to succeed him, but was defeated by [[John Tory]] by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent on the second ballot of the [[2004 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election|PC leadership election]] held on September 18, 2004. His supporters included former cabinet ministers [[John Baird (Canadian politician)|John Baird]], [[Tim Hudak]] and [[Norm Sterling]].<ref name="20years=trinh" /> His 2004 leadership campaign was similar to that of 2002. He emphasized [[Fiscal conservatism|fiscally conservative]] themes, including further tax cuts and greater privatization. He promised to create EXCEL scholarships, whereby students attaining high grades in high school would have half their university tuition paid by the government. Until 2005, Flaherty served as [[Shadow Cabinet|finance critic]] in [[John Tory]]'s shadow cabinet.<ref name="20years=trinh" /><ref>{{cite news|author=Richard Mackie |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/flaherty-klees-win-key-roles-in-torys-shadow-cabinet/article1004880/ |title=Flaherty, Klees win key roles in Tory's shadow cabinet |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |access-date=2014-04-11}}</ref>