Mitchell William Sharp, one of the grand old gentlemen of Canadian politics, has died at age 92. He had been ill with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and died in an Ottawa hospital.

Sharp's public service and political career stretched back almost 60 years.

"When I look back at my career in government, I realize I'm like Dean Acheson (a senior official in the administrations of U.S. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman) who wrote a book called Present at the Creation," he once joked.

While he grew older, Sharp never really retired. He served for the last 10 years as a personal adviser to former prime minister Jean Chretien for a $1-a-year salary and left the position the day before Paul Martin became prime minister.

"I never had the sensation of being old and wanting to retire, never," he said.

His operating phrase for staying vital could be summed up in two words: "Be curious."

Curiousity led him onto the stage of the National Arts Centre at age 90 to be a guest conductor.

"I've been interested in this organization, this place since I was part of the government that built it," he said.

While music was a life-long love, it was politics and government that held the tightest grip on his heart.

The Winnipeg-born economist was educated at both the University of Manitoba and the London School of Economics. He successfully made the jump into politics in 1963, winning the old Eglinton riding in Toronto and holding it in each subsequent election.

He served first as the minister of trade and commerce, later moving on to finance and then foreign affairs.

Sharp led Canada's breakthrough in establishing diplomatic relations with China -- and tussled with the U.S. on occasion.

"What can we do we haven't already done to meet the requirements of the U.S.," he once said.

Sharp was Pierre Trudeau's right-hand man. Before that, he was a mentor to then-up-and-comer Jean Chretien, who became his parliamentary secretary when Sharp was minister of finance.

Sharp stepped down from cabinet in 1976 retired from Parliament in 1978, but not from public life.

Sharp headed a 1984 task force on ethics, was commissioner of the Northern Pipeline Agency and wrote his memoirs. He was a deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a private global policy discussion group, from 1976 to 1986.

The Liberals were out of power from 1984 until 1993, when Chretien won the first of three consecutive majorities. Sharp was brought back into active duty, serving as an adviser.

"I didn't want people to think the prime minister was paying me off for past services," he explained.

Asked about Chretien in a 2000 interview with CTV.ca, Sharp said it was a speech Chretien gave Sharp's riding that made him think this was truly a young man of potential.

"He said at one stage, 'You know, I come from Quebec. All my family is there. I'm very proud of the people who speak my language and my society.' But he said, 'I am also a Canadian and I own a little bit of the Rocky Mountains,' And I thought 'My, that was smart. That is the whole thing. That's the case.' So they gave him a tremendous reception. Far greater that I ever got," Sharp said with a laugh.

Sharp's first wife, Margaret Ann (Daisy) Boyd, died in 1975. They had been married 37 years and had one son, Noel.

He married his second wife, Jeannette Dugal in 1976. She also predeceased him.

He married Jeanne d'Arc Labreque in September 2000 -- roughly four months after his 89th birthday.

Based on a report by CTV's Roger Smith