Alberta's Finance Minister Is Breaking A Weird Canadian Tradition & It Involves New Shoes
Who knew shoes would be so important?
As Alberta prepares for its 2022 Budget this week, the province’s finance minister has revealed he is bypassing the Canadian tradition of wearing new shoes to deliver his budget.
In a video posted by the province, Finance Minister Travis Toews revealed he would be wearing the same pair of cowboy boots to present the budget this year, as he did in 2021.
“Usually on Budget Day, there’s a lot of interest in the shoes I’m wearing, where they were purchased and what they represent,” Toews explained.
He discussed his decision to wear the same boots that he had bought from the Alberta Boot Company in Calgary last year.
He said: "They've served me well over the past year, and I will be wearing them again this year.”
As part of a unique tradition in Canada, finance ministers would normally buy a pair of new shoes and wear them while delivering the budget.
It’s not really known why this is the case, but according to the Library of Parliament, Walter Edward Harris was the first finance minister to wear new shoes to deliver his budget in 1955.
It's not the only odd tradition in Canada, either. When a new Speaker of the House of Commons is elected or re-elected, they are "dragged" to the Speaker's Chair. In November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the then-Leader of the Conservative Party Erin O'Toole pulled Anthony Rota through the House to his chair.
For the budget, though, the choice of shoes is often said to represent the major themes of the announcement.
Toews said: "The past two years have been hard. Your work may have changed, or maybe you lost your job. You juggled a routine that changed constantly, and on top of it all, you tried to make sense of a world that we really didn't know anymore."
But the finance minister seems optimistic about the year ahead, and said the 2022 budget will represent the province "moving forward."
“I really believe things are looking up,” he said.
"Budget 2022 is a budget for you. For your future. For your kid's future and for Alberta's future."