Smith became an influential business man after his career in public office.In 1961 he and Milt Harradence used their political influence with Prime John Diefenbaker to make Lynn Garrison’s Lancaster Memorial Fund a success.
Diefenbaker turned over his parliamentary duties to British Columbia MP Howard Green and spent much of his time on the road making speeches across the country.
In addition to concern within the party about Diefenbaker's mercurial style of leadership, there had been a serious split in party ranks over the issue of stationing American nuclear missiles (see Bomarc missile) on Canadian soil for protection from possible Soviet attack.
After Ali regained his title after a gap of many years by winning the bout, Rae commented that with Ali's victory, other events from the late Fifties and early Sixties could now recur: Floyd Patterson could now defeat Ali, Marilyn Bell could swim Lake Ontario again, and Diefenbaker could again be Prime Minister.
One of Macpherson's most celebrated cartoons featured John Diefenbaker as Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake," after Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow project and its 14,000 jobs.
On 20 February 1959, the infamous "Black Friday", Żurakowski, along with the approximately 15,000 employees of Avro and Orenda plants learned that the Diefenbaker government had precipitously cancelled the Avro Arrow program and its Orenda Iroquois engine.
Highway 19 crosses the Qu'Appelle Valley about 1 km southeast of the dam, and provides access to a vantage point of the dam Lake Diefenbaker and the Qu'Appelle Valley.