Jim Flaherty
To celebrate 25 years of serving Canada’s real estate community, REM asked a small group of real estate leaders this question:
“Who had the biggest impact – good or bad – on Canadian real estate in the last 25 years?
This is not a popularity contest or a marketing exercise. We want to know who you think had the biggest impact on the industry in the last 25 years – even if it was, in your opinion, a negative impact. Your choices could include Realtors, company executives, association executive officers, regulators, service company executives….even politicians! Who has had the most impact during the last 25 years in making the industry what it is today?”
REM took those consensus picks and added our own and the results will be revealed on REMonline every day until the end of June. Take a look and see if you agree with these choices, and then let us know who we missed. Add your comments below or drop an email to [email protected].
The Finance Ministers
The late Jim Flaherty, former federal Minister of Finance, received several mentions from REM’s expert panel.
“Through his fiscally responsible policies, he led Canada through the recent global economic crisis and in doing so protected our economy, which in turn protected our real estate property values,” says Andy Cimerman, CEO of HomeLife. “If it weren’t for his skill, knowledge and commitment to the Canadian people, our real estate market would no doubt have suffered to the same degree as the U.S. housing market suffered for the past several years. His influence on real estate is immeasurable and our debt to him immense.”
Paul Martin with a copy of REM in 1997
“Often times it takes strong leaders to make bold decisions and whether right or wrong, to stand behind their decisions,” says CREA past-president Laura Leyser. “And in my opinion (Flaherty) led the way.”
Comox, B.C. real estate manager and long-time REM columnist Marty Douglas says: “Two Ministers of Finance; one Liberal, Paul Martin, and one Conservative, the late Jim Flaherty, between them presided over 17 of the 25 years in question. The five-year posted rate dropped from around 13 per cent in 1989 to the present day five per cent, fuelling the expansion of the secondary and investment housing market and the creation of new lending vehicles, especially the principal residence mortgage and line of credit, much maligned as an ATM but nonetheless a creative tool unimagined 25 years ago. If you force me to choose between the two ministers, my reluctant vote would go to Mr. Martin, the longer serving minister with the largest drop in interest rates in his term. Reluctant, of course, due to the untimely death of Mr. Flaherty, whose eulogies revealed a worldwide influence, placing Canadian banking as a role model during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.”
