The only thing that you got correct is that Flaherty was finence minister during our recession.

It was Mulroney who turned a 200 billion $ debt into 600 billion by kowtowing.

That was followed by Chretien and Martin as his minister. They tried to reverse the deficits and partly succeeded but Chretien's involvment with Quebec separation and 100 million $s going to cronies to keep Quebec in Canada put a damper on that effort.
Conservatives made a big deal about the 100 million But swept under blanket their 400 billion contribution to the debt ( which was 4000 times larger in case anyone did not notice).

After that was Martin as prime minister and he did put a big dent into the debt with surplus budgets but many Canadians turfed him out because he made us pay for the excesses and spending of the past. It was Martin who put us on the right path and
prevented a Canadian depression.

Since then Harper has taken the credit for the above and what improvements to deficits he made since was at the cost of infrastructures and social programs.
Finally, Flaherty did not put us on stability. What stability there is now was before he took on the job.

And in case anyone does not notice, a large part of world economy is as unstable now as it was 5-10 years ago and in many cases worse.
( Due to that I am a portion of any year in central Europe. When Euro came it was worth about 65 cents canadian, now it is the reverse, why if we ar doing so well?. I will not talk about the States who are even worse and getting into a deeper quagmire.