No, of course I know all of these people on first-name terms, but I go further than that. During the first part of my time as the national science advisor, I created a committee of presidents of councils and agencies--research agencies. That would include NSERC, CIHR, the Space Agency, NRC, SSHRC, CFI, and Genome Canada. We met regularly to discuss issues and take on projects. I thought that was a very effective way of getting people, first of all, to share information that they hadn't shared before. Bringing them together, convening this, was by itself a very positive thing.
On March 6th, 2008. See this statement in context.