Toronto ? When Canada’s transport minister decided to name his cat Thatcher, he likely never thought it would cause the stir it did earlier this week.

During a tribute to Canada’s military in Toronto, some 1,700 luminaries, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, were in the middle of dinner Tuesday when smart phones throughout the room began to buzz with the news: “Lady Thatcher has passed away.”

Harper’s aide Dimitri Soudas, back in Ottawa, e-mailed his contacts at Buckingham Palace and in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office.

They had no idea what he was talking about. Lady Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher, the 84-year-old former British prime minister, was still very much alive.

Turns out it was Transport Minister John Baird’s beloved 16-year-old cat, whom he’d named Thatcher out of admiration for one of his political heroes, who had ceased to be.