Burning Questions: Will Canadians spend their mountain of saved cash to rescue the economy?

James Lorimer Ilsley managed Canada’s fiscal affairs during the Second World War, overseeing an unprecedented period of government spending as the finance minister in William Lyon Mackenzie King’s cabinet. By June 1946, though, Ilsley and others were eyeing the finances of everyday Canadians. And, as he observed in a speech in the House of Commons, the amount of money saved by many people had shot up during the war,...