Ten years ago, when David Rosenberg was chief economist at Merrill Lynch in New York, Canada rarely came up in conversation.

Canadian assets just weren’t part of an investment strategy for anyone who wasn’t Canadian, he remembers.

Things couldn’t be more different today. Now, high-net-worth U.S. investors, including clients of Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto, where Rosenberg is now chief economist and strategist, see Canada as a safe and easy-to-access destination, where fiscal and monetary policy is a whole lot better right now.

Canada is seen “almost as a 51st state, but with a much better currency, and a much more prudent government and central bank,” he said. Gluskin’s U.S. investors are snapping up bonds, equities and Canadian real estate–“residential, commercial, farmland — across the country,” Rosenberg said.

Canada’s dollar is one of the most tangible expressions of foreign confidence in the country. The loonie is strong and poised to become stronger still, Rosenberg said, as foreigners continue piling into Canadian assets, seeking yield as well as a safe harbor from the world’s financial storms.