For some reason, he took an interest in me, in my undergraduate thesis and my plans for graduate school, and we stayed in touch after I started work at the Bank of Canada in 1981. Needless to say, I admired him greatly and was crushed when he passed away in 1993.
The federal government, and the provinces, proceeded to clean up their balance sheets. Because of that, our public debt-to-GDP ratio is on a sustainable downward path, even during a period of economic slowdown. This improvement in the public sector balance sheet has led to a sharp increase in national savings.