The fear this time around is that if Greeks vote for the anti-austerity parties in Sunday's election, it could result in the country defaulting on its debts and getting kicked out of the eurozone.
When asked if Greece would exit the eurozone, Flaherty said that was "up to the voters."
Flaherty described the debt crisis in Greece as "very serious" but added that he was "much more concerned" with the economic turmoil in Spain.
The government in Madrid has accepted a bailout for its cash-strapped banks. But there are fears among world leaders that Spain, which has the fifth-largest economy in Europe, could still need a much larger bailout to get its debt under control.
"That's a large economy, that's an economy comparable to Canada's," Flaherty said.
The European debt crisis is not confined to Greece and Spain. Portugal and Ireland have already received bailouts while Italy continues to be mired in debt.
European rescue
While countries outside of Europe have pledged billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the world economy if the need arises, Canada and the U.S. have rejected the idea.
Flaherty told Solomon that Canada is not prepared to dedicate "Canadian resources to help bail out relatively rich European countries."
Canada's position has been to encourage Europeans to sore up their own funds to build up a firewall that would signal to the markets that E.U. members are prepared to support their own.
Flaherty did not want to speculate about any conditions under which Canada would boost its IMF funding, saying only the situation would be different if the Europeans proposed a plan and said they didn't have "adequate resources."
"If it ever came to that, that they didn't have adequate resources, then that would be different," Flaherty said. "I don't think they'll ever be able to show us they don't have adequate resources."
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