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When Jim Flaherty was Canada’s finance minister under the Harper government, there was no controversy over his wealth or demands that he put everything in a blind trust.

He was more one of us than he was one of them — “them’ being heirs to fortunes like Justin Trudeau, or wealthy beyond imagination like his finance minister, Bill Morneau.

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To most Canadians, Flaherty was a regular guy. He represented the working-class Ontario riding of Whitby-Oshawa, and was rumpled-enough to suggest he slept in his suit, and ruddy enough to suggest a liking for the grog.

When Flaherty died suddenly in 2014 of a heart attack, exiting life at age 64, his relatively modest net worth totaled less than $1 million.

Bill Morneau likely spills that much on a good night.

But you get the point. Jim Flaherty was relatable to the average Canadian, and he could himself relate to them.

It is not Bill Morneau’s fault that he is rich beyond dreams, of course, and married into the billionaire McCain food family, and nor is it Justin Trudeau’s fault that he was spoiled by his late father’s riches, and talks without hesitation about his “family fortune.”