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The Minister's New Shoes

JJ McCullough, Investigative Reporter

This week, Josh Upton asks, “Why do finance ministers
always buy new shoes for budget day?”

A couple of weeks ago BC’s finance minister, Carole
Taylor, touched off a minor firestorm of protest when it
was revealed that she had purchased a $600 pair of pumps
prior to publicly revealing the province’s 2006 budget. To
many, the act reeked of vanity and extravagance, and
indeed, poor taste in general. Though one can certainly
debate the necessity of such expensive footwear, according
to tradition, the minister did nothing wrong. For at the last
few decades, it has been an established political custom in
Canada: Every finance minister must purchase—and
wear—new shoes immediately before presenting a new
budget before the parliament.

Why? Well, surprisingly, no one seems to know.
Acctording to the official website of the Library of
Parliament in Ottawa, even their crack team of investiga-
tors has been unable to determine the origins of the tradi-

 

tion, despite having phoned every surviving finance minis-

ter in the country. All the library officials were able to
determine was that the tradition started in 1966 with
Finance Minister Mitchell Sharp. Sharp himself died in
2004, so he can no longer offer much help in solving the
mystery.

There are rumours, however. One common interpreta-
tion holds that the fashion-conscious Sharp simply felt like
buying new shoes for his big budget day, and the practice
only evolved into a full blown tradition when Jean Chrétien
became finance minister several years later. Since Chrétien
was a political rookie in those days, the other politicians
often enjoyed playing pranks on him. The legend goes that
a gang of mischievous MPs told Chrétien to buy new
shoes for budget day, simply to see if he would be gullible
enough to obey. He did, and since then so has everyone
else. After all, as the old saying goes, “As goes Chrétien, so
goes the nation.”

Got a question that needs investigating? Email
wart_mamu@yahoo.com

 

 

 

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