Congratulations are in order to some political notables for a new baby and a new commitment.

The baby is the grandson of a former Prime Minister — who shares his granddad’s birthday:

eTalk has learned that Quebec Reporter Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau and her husband Justin Trudeau have welcomed a son, Xavier ...   more »

As of the Throne Speech, the phrase “Canada’s New Government” has — mercifully — been tossed away by — oh, let’s use it one last time — Canada’s New Government. The Conservative government will now just be known in government press releases etc. as Canada’s Government.

Meanwhile, in the wake ...   more »

Canada's generals and admirals tend to be more concerned about their relationships with their American counterparts than they are with their own political masters in Ottawa, a preoccupation that would play out over the next few years on a variety of issues" "One example illustrates the point. Defence Minister John McCallum tried urgently to reach a senior admiral at NDHQ and was put on hold and told to call back later, as the admiral in question was on the line with the Pentagon."

And, in the mid-1990s under the Liberals, Finance Minister Paul Martin had cut the budget of the Canadian Forces by nearly a third to help eliminate the deficit. Now that there were urgent priorities in the aftermath of 9-11, priorities directly related to Canada's economy, Lynch and Martin were not about to put scarce dollars into the black hole of defence."

"Canada has soldiers that are buried all over Europe because we fought in defence of liberty and we're not about to back away from a challenge now because we think somebody might get hurt."

"I remember standing outside Centre Block one steamy afternoon when Prime Minister Diefenbaker emerged, on crutches. Along with senators Bill Brunt and Davey Walker, he stepped carefully into a Blue Line cab and headed off to 24 Sussex for lunch.

The small kindnesses that motivates caucus members and inspire their families -- an evening call just to chat, flowers, and a personal note on the illness, death or marriage of a close relative, a spontaneous invitation to drop by 24 Sussex for a drink after work -- all of these encouraging courtesies evaporated in the recriminations and Monday-morning quarterbacking that dominated postelection discussions in the Prime Minister's Office. I carefully noted this change and saw the degree of erosion that sets in, at first subtly and then irretrievably, in the leader's base support in caucus and party when personal gestures by the leader and his wife cease.

As the federal government prepares to overhaul a key tool to protect intellectual property (IP) -- Canada's copyright legislation -- new research prepared the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) suggests that decision makers in Canada's business community have a poor understanding of what intellectual property is or what agencies in Canada are responsible for protecting IP. But they don't care that they don't know that: It seems none of the 2,016 respondents to the survey, done by The Strategic Counsel, ranked 'Intellectual Property' issues as one of the top issues for their company.