# Do Finance Ministers in other Commonwealth countries buy new shoes on budget day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291 "2015-03-18T14:23:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/1 "2015-03-18T14:23:02Z")
It’s a tradition in Canada that the Finance Ministers (federal and provincial) buy new shoes on budget day. [Here’s an article about the Sask Finance Minister putting on his new shoes that his wife bought him, in preparation for today’s budget.](http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Tight+budget+expected/10898240/story.html) Is this just a Canadian tradition, or do Finance Ministers in other Commonwealth countries do it as well? ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/2 "2015-03-18T15:31:06Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > It’s a tradition in Canada that the Finance Ministers (federal and provincial) buy new shoes on budget day. [Here’s an article about the Sask Finance Minister putting on his new shoes that his wife bought him, in preparation for today’s budget.](http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Tight+budget+expected/10898240/story.html) > > Is this just a Canadian tradition, or do Finance Ministers in other Commonwealth countries do it as well? Never heard of it in the UK - didn’t hear it today during the coverage of today’s budget. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/3 "2015-03-18T15:35:21Z")
George Osborne has bought back the tradition of using Gladstone’s old Budget box. Brown thought it was too old fashioned or something, like financial prudence. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/4 "2015-03-18T15:37:57Z")
what’s the Budget box look like? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/5 "2015-03-18T15:38:25Z")
According to the [Canadian Parliament’s website](http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/compilations/parliament/BudgetNewShoes.aspx), it’s a uniquely Canadian tradition that may or may not date only to the 50s. If so, congratulations on hiding such a wonderfully strange and almost stereotypically Canadian tradition from your neighbors to the south. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/6 "2015-03-18T15:46:21Z")
My favourite was [John Crosbie’s mukluks](http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2013-06-13/article-3276260/The-politician,-the-playmate-and-the-mukluks/1). He auctioned them off after his failed leadership bid, assisted by Playmate of the Month, Shannon Tweed (now married to Gene Simmons - it’s a small world). Hmm - there’s a wiki article on it too: [New Shoes on Budget Day](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_shoes_on_budget_day). Bottom line seems to be that it’s a Canadian custom, and no-one knows why. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/7 "2015-03-18T16:23:40Z")
Wasn’t Imelda Marcos known for buying shoes with taxpayers’ money? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/8 "2015-03-19T00:32:55Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Wasn’t Imelda Marcos known for buying shoes with taxpayers’ money? 🆒 In fairness to the Canadian finance ministers, it should be made clear that if they buy new shoes for budget day they do so with their own money. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/9 "2015-03-19T00:38:39Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > In fairness to the Canadian finance ministers, it should be made clear that if they buy new shoes for budget day they do so with their own money. I think the implication was that ministers are paid by tax payers. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/10 "2015-03-19T01:07:46Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I think the implication was that ministers are paid by tax payers. I’m paid by the company I work for. It doesn’t make the money I spend at the supermarket or restaurant the company’s money, though. It was just a snark at politicians I think and how we all think we have some monetary hold over them or something. Back to the OP, although it has pretty much been answered. It’s not a trdition here. The only one I can think of is the obligatory photo in the newspaper of the finance minister reading the budget at the printer’s with a cheesy grin on his/her face. (Maybe not her face. The only female finance minister we had was known as rather humourless and nicknamed Ruthless with her policies known as Ruthonomics or Ruthanasia. Her name was Ruth Richardson) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/11 "2015-03-19T01:37:54Z")
[QUOTE=Chris Moncrieff] > **[When Labour MPs wore miners' helmets](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/may/10/redbox.houseofcommons)** > > When parliament is dissolved next Monday, PA's veteran political correspondent, Chris Moncrieff, will say farewell to the last of the MPs who were sitting when he first started reporting from parliament in 1962. Here he reflects on almost four... But high days and holidays, Budget Days and State Openings, when many MPs dressed up to the nines in a glorious replica of Ladies Day at Royal Ascot have sadly disappeared. Tories donned silk toppers and morning suits, the ladies sported extravagant floral hats and spectacular dresses and even the odd Labour MP marked the occasion by wearing a miner’s helmet. [/QUOTE] Australian Budget Day traditions are few and more eccentricities Miners hats are sometimes seen, though this might indicate an MP from Western Australia demonstrating solidarity with their mining magnate mates rather than a Hunter or Latrobe Valley coal miner. One long term Treasurer apparently always wore the same tie, though that might reflect their parsimony rather than any tradition. IIRC Michael Hodgeman when in opposition turned up in a full chicken suit and sat on the government benches until removed by the sergeant-at-arms. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/12 "2015-03-19T01:38:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I think the implication was that ministers are paid by tax payers. So are public servants and Crown corp employees. 😉 But once they’re paid, it’s their money. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/13 "2015-03-19T01:51:56Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > So are public servants and Crown corp employees. 😉 > > But once they’re paid, it’s their money. [hijack]I see what you did there, but all of that is about to change as AECL became CNL and is about to be privatized.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/14 "2015-03-19T04:37:40Z")
Not in Pakistan either. There is a tradition of calling the minister various rude words during and after his speech, though I don’t think that’s a uniquely Pakistani. The one time we had a female Finance Minister, there was a lot of talk on her dress IIRC during her speech. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-finance-ministers-in-other-commonwealth-countries-buy-new-shoes-on-budget-day/715291/15 "2015-03-19T09:59:45Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > George Osborne has bought back the tradition of using Gladstone’s old Budget box. Brown thought it was too old fashioned or something, like financial prudence. I think more accurately Osborne retired the original ministerial box that had been in continual use since Gladstone’s time - it was incredibly fragile. It’s now in a permanent display in the House of Commons. They made a brand spanking new box instead. To the OP: not shoes, but in the British House of Commons the Chancellor gets the exclusive privilege on budget day of having a beverage in the Chamber. Since Brown, it’s just been spring water, but it used to be oftentimes whisky and soda.