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Carleton Place Almonte Canadian Gazette

Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada, Dr. Ray Bassett, says the late finance minister Jim Flaherty was the most relaxed he’d seen him in a long time.

The two got together at P.J. O’Brien’s in downtown Toronto for a couple pints while watching the Ireland vs. France rugby match on March 15.

Three days later, Flaherty resigned.

“He didn’t tell me he was resigning,” says Bassett in a phone interview, “but I should’ve seen at the time that he was going to resign.”

Bassett regarded Flaherty as a personal friend and mentor, and said he was a “very, very warm human being.” He says Flaherty, over the past four years, was the person who helped him the most with his job as Ambassador in Canada.

Bassett says he tried calling Flaherty the morning he died.

The two had met on several occasions in March, and Flaherty’s death was a shock for him.

“I thought he wasn’t in great shape,” recalls Bassett, “I met him at an event in early March and I don’t think he was concentrating completely.” But the last time Bassett saw Flaherty at O’Brien’s near the airport in Toronto on March 15, it was another story.

“He was back completely to his own self. We had a few beers together and everything!” Bassett says he spent about four hours with Flaherty that day, and that they had a terrific time.

“He needed to wind down… it was what he needed.”

Surrounding them at O’Brien’s were more than 200 other Irish watching the game as well, recalls Bassett.

“If anyone said anything (bad) about Jim Flaherty they’d be tossed out the front window,” he joked.

Bassett says Flaherty was the first person Stephen Harper would speak to about Ireland.

“When Harper was over in Ireland for three days, Jim was with him all the time.”

Basset says Harper regarded him as the ‘Encyclopedia of Ireland.’ Flaherty was a man who didn’t want policy or politics to get too heated, says Bassett.

“But he could fight hard,” recalls Bassett, “but he’d often diffuse the situation with a joke and refuse to let it get too personal.”

Bassett says that after a few drinks while watching the rugby game, he started asking Flaherty some questions.

“He was warm about a lot of people,” recalls Bassett “He had friends across the aisle and he spoke warmly about Justin Trudeau.”

Flaherty also spoke well of Tom Mulcair, according to the Ambassador.

“He felt (Tom Mulcair) was 100 per cent sincere.”

Many Canadians can recall Jim Flaherty standing in public wearing his characteristic green tie.

He had a strong interest in his Irish heritage.

Bassett says before he died, Flaherty discovered some of his Irish ancestors were buried on Partridge Island, N.B. The island, now a historic site, has several mass graves. Flaherty, according to Bassett, found out some of his bloodline ended up buried there.

As for the former finance minister’s recent death, the somber Irish Ambassador said: “We’ve lost our best political friend in Canada.”

Article source: http://www.espnscrum.com/ireland/rugby/story/220339.html

Home News Irish Ambassador recounts rugby and beer with his...