加拿大前财长突然逝世

 OTTAWA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Jim Flaherty, who stepped down as one of Canada's longest-serving finance ministers in March and who served during one of the country's most challenging economic times, died suddenly on Thursday at the age of 64.

"Today is a very sad day for me," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his federal caucus¹ Thursday afternoon about the death of Flaherty, who served as his only finance minister from 2006 until March 18.

The Peace Tower flag here on Parliament Hill was lowered to half-mast in tribute to Flaherty, and in what is believed to be an unprecedented² move, the sitting of the House of Commons was suspended until Friday morning.

A former finance minister in Canada's largest province, Ontario, Flaherty became the first federal finance minister to attempt to create, though not accomplished³ under his watch, a national securities regulator, whose absence has left Canada alone among member countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development without such a national regulator.

An immensely likeable politician, Flaherty was also not shy to express his opinion even if it meant appearing at odds⁴ with his boss, the prime minister, over the federal Conservatives' 2011 election promise to introduce income splitting for couples with children under the age of 18.

The plan was seen to benefit families where one parent has a high income and the other parent may have little or no income.

The day after delivering this year's -- and his 10th -- federal budget in February, Flaherty acknowledged the promise needed to be thought through more carefully.

Flaherty's health became an issue over the past year after he revealed in early 2013 that he had suffered from a rare and painful autoimmune skin disorder⁵, bullous pemphigoid, though he said last month it was "not related in any way" to his decision to leave his post as finance minister.

1 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

2 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

3 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

4 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

5 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。