Mr. Flaherty is sorry

That's an astounding figure and no one should try to sugar-coat it with words like “it's only on paper”. This is the major and permanent destruction of personal wealth and the primary victims are hard-working Canadians who did exactly what they were told to do by saving for their retirement years and investing the money according to the rules laid down by successive governments.

I am frankly appalled by some of the insensitive comments I have read in the media saying in effect that all this is somehow the investors' own fault. These folks did nothing illegal or even borderline. They invested in securities that were publicly traded in Canada and which met all legal tests. They paid taxes on the income they received in accordance with the laws of the land. This is not a case of people trying to hide money in offshore tax havens (the next target on our Finance Minister's hit list) or trying to cheat the Canada Revenue Agency by using overly-aggressive tax shelters. Yet these people are being demonized by some writers as somehow being the cause of the problem.

As one senior wrote, in dripping sarcasm, after reading some of these articles: “When I think back and realize what a money grubbing old man I was for trying to maximize my income to earn as much as I could on my invested capital and life savings, it's truly humiliating! Here I was complaining just because I had lost a measly $165,000 of my lifetime's hard-earned capital in just two days. It didn't matter that I was in my 70s and my ‘payroll' days were over. After all, I still had some money left. Some people just never have enough. Now you know why I feel so guilty.”

Mr. Flaherty says he's sorry for all this. I'm sure that all the folks who saw the value of their RRSPs and RRIFs fall by thousands of dollars really appreciate his touching apology. He's not going to cha