Flaherty heads to Toronto shoemaker ahead of federal budget next week

TORONTO - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to go shoe shopping today ahead of next week's federal budget.

By tradition, finance ministers wear a new pair of shoes when they deliver the annual budget.

Flaherty is scheduled to do a pre-budget photo opportunity at Mellow Walk Footwear in Toronto.

Mellow Walk bills itself as a maker of fashionable industrial safety footwear.

Flaherty has said he doesn't expect the budget to be balanced. The Conservatives plan to post a surplus in 2015, just in time for the next election.

The federal budget is expected Feb. 11.