New shoes on budget day is an unusual tradition among Canadian Ministers of Finance. The tradition holds that the Minister of Finance should purchase or wear new shoes when the budget is delivered.
The exact origins of this tradition are not known. The observance of this tradition has been inconsistent among federal ministers; indeed, for two or three finance ministers, this tradition only holds if "new shoes" is interpreted to mean "new footwear". It also makes appearances among provincial finance ministers.
Read more about New Shoes On Budget Day: History, New Shoes As A Symbol
Famous quotes containing the words shoes, budget and/or day:
“What we have worn out our iron-soled shoes searching for in vain may come to us without the slightest effort.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)