In Bishop’s Robes, Jim Flaherty Meets the Retailers

At a highly publicized meeting on Parliament Hill today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will exhort the nation’s retailers to bring prices into line with the stronger value of the Canadian dollar. The gathering bears a strong resemblance to a conclave of medieval warlords with the local bishop. From time to time the bishop would meet with knights, lords, knaves and other grandees to urge a little Christian charity on them.

Keep the pillaging, looting, mayhem, and theft from the local peasants to a minimum he would urge. Not only would this win points for them with the Almighty, it would do much to prevent the peasants from revolting. And the peasants are always revolting, he might add.

Naturally those present at the gathering understood that the bishop would take no earthly action to ensure compliance with his stated wishes. Moral suasion was the name of the game.

When Jim Flaherty meets with the Retail Council, Walmart and all the other marts, he is there to urge them to do the right thing. They should give Canadian consumers true value for their puissant loonies.

Like the medieval bishop, Flaherty is a man a principle, of fixed principles. He believes in the celestial workings of the unregulated market. Let the forces of supply and demand, of wages and profits operate like a finely tuned timepiece and all will be well. There will be no legislation to require retailers to treat Canadians fairly when they purchase automobiles, books, household appliances and clothing, the finance minister has already said.

Why bother to hold the meeting at all if Flaherty plans to take no action to ensure that Canadians get fairness?

As a man of his creed, the finance minister believes that words from the pulpit can have an effect. For their part, the retailers are grumbling. They don’t want to be seen at a confessional where they are cast in the role of the sinners. The price gap between Canada and the U.S. is someone else’s fault, they insist. Blame the manufacturers, the distributors, labour and the geography of Canada, just don’t blame them.

At the conclave, Flaherty will be sure to explain to the retailers that spending an hour or two wearing a hair shirt in a his presence and perhaps conceding a few alms to consumers is better than the alternative: a meeting at a future date with a political leader who might actually do something.