Jim Flaherty "was a truly great Canadian,” Premier Darrell Pasloski said Thursday, joining the long line of Canadian and foreign dignitaries offering tribute to Canada's former Finance minister.

Flaherty, 64, died suddenly Thursday from a massive heart attack.

"I was shocked and deeply saddened by that event,” said Pasloski.

"Mr. Flaherty has been a long-time servant of the Canadian people and led the country through a time of tremendous economic crises really, when you look back at 2008 and 2009.

"Not only a leader recognized in this country but amongst his peers as finance ministers or leaders of finance across the world.”

Flaherty was one of Canada's longest-serving Finance ministers, taking on the position during his first term as the MP for Whitby-Oshawa, Ont. in 2006.

He resigned his ministerial duties on March 18.

While Flaherty had been suffering from a rare skin disease, he said his decision to leave politics was not health-related and planned to enter the private sector.

"This decision was made because it is the right one for me and my family at this time,” he said in a statement announcing his resignation.

"I want to thank my wife, Christine, and our three sons for their unwavering support during my time in public office. I am lucky to have such a wonderful family.

"As I begin another chapter in my life, I leave feeling fulfilled with what we have accomplished as a government and a country during one of the most challenging economic periods in our country's history.

"We live in the greatest country in the world, and I want Canadians to know that it has been my honour and my privilege to serve them,” he wrote. 

Pasloski too noted Flaherty's leadership during the economic recession.

"The recession of 2008, 2009 was only rivaled by the Great Depression of the '30s, and with his leadership and foresight, Canada was really the last country to slip into that recession and the first country to emerge out of it, and to emerge out of it in a much better position financially than all the other industrialized countries in the world and that is a tribute to his leadership,” the premier said.

Pasloski offered condolences to Flaherty's family on behalf of his wife, Tammy, and all Yukoners.

There are choices and sacrifices you make within a family to serve in public office, Pasloski said.

He noted Flaherty served many years in the Ontario legislature before beginning his tenure as Canada's Finance minister.

Flaherty's family issued a statement Thursday that said their "beloved husband and father passed away peacefully today in Ottawa.

"We appreciate that he was so well supported in his public life by Canadians from coast to coast to coast and by his international colleagues,” it says.

Pasloski, who also serves as Yukon's Finance minister, thought back to his impression of Flaherty before first meeting him, remembering "those fiery responses that he would give in the House of Commons.

"But ... when I met Jim Flaherty, he was a very quiet, humble, caring individual and certainly he was a strong proponent of people with disabilities.

"I was also sort of taken by the mild-manneredness, and the calmness and the politeness of which he was as an individual person, and how he held a lot of respect for everyone around him was truly amazing,” he said.

"It was great at the conclusion of a couple meetings to see he was more than willing to have a pint, not only with other elected representatives but staff as well,” he added.

Liz Hanson, the leader of the Yukon's official Opposition, also offered her condolences today.

Hanson remembered losing colleague Steve Cardiff in "an equally shocking circumstance.”

Cardiff, an NDP MLA at the time, was killed in a traffic crash south of Whitehorse in July 2011.

"In politics, we lose sight of the human side of the person and we get focused on the policies and the posturing,” she said.

Flaherty's death is a reminder that he was not only a powerful man of politics but a human being as well.

"These sudden deaths cause us all to step back and say sometimes we need to be looking more deeply at the relationship piece that can be there if we really want it to be and my understanding is he was a man who did and I saw Steve also doing that,” she said.

Political columnist John Ivison tweeted today that sources report Flaherty will be given a state funeral next Wednesday.

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