Does Jim Flaherty deserve a ‘pass’ in the cabinet shuffle?

He steered the Canadian economy through the worst global crisis since the Great Depression and sought to take away the proverbial “punch bowl”—to use a central bank metaphor— when homeowners and investors seemed to be getting too excited about ever-rising housing prices. And in just a few more months Jim Flaherty could become the third-longest serving finance minister in Canada’s history (after William Fielding and Paul Martin, in case you were wondering). But will Mr. Flaherty survive a widely expected cabinet shuffle this summer? Speculations on the issue have been many and varied.

More important still, though, is another question: Should he stay? Should Prime Minister Stephen Harper give Mr. Flaherty a pass? Here’s how our resident econ profs graded the finance minister over his (nearly) seven and a half years in office.

To view a larger version of the report, please click here (pdf).