- Player and fan Flaherty won his way into Princeton University on a hockey scholarship.
- The only Canadian Finance Minister to have been so-named, Mr. Flaherty was named Finance Minister of the Year by EUROMoney Magazine.
- The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Member of Parliament for Whitby-Oshawa was afforded a rare honour by the country he served so well: a State Funeral.
- Mr. Flaherty suffered from a rare skin disease called Bullous pemphigoid. His condition was treated with steroids, which may in fact have contributed to his death.
- In his Budget 2008, Flaherty put forth a measure called the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). It went into effect on January 2, 2009.
- Flaherty was a friend of the family of Toronto’s beleaguered Mayor, Rob Ford. When things went very publicly wrong for the Mayor, Flaherty was publicly teary-eyed about his long-time friend and a man who he had supported for many years.
- In one of his earlier Federal Budgets, the Finance Minister didn’t buy a new pair of shoes—a customary practice. Instead, he bought a new pair of hockey skates for one of his sons.
- According to The Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson, Flaherty could be funny when he wanted to be. On that Simpson once said: “He could actually tell a joke, including on himself, which made him stand out in a government that is utterly without humour.”