Where did Kate get those fabulous shoes?

(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

When you cover the political beat, indulging in a little tabloid guilty pleasure doesn't usually call to mind something you need to ask the foreign minister's office.

But a British tab piece about some of the gifts received during trips abroad by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, mentioned three pairs of shoes for Kate Middleton from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird during her visit to Canada last summer.

Shoes? Did someone say shoes? The inquiring (mostly female) minds in our office wanted more details.

I wrote Baird's office to ask whose shoes he'd gifted, wondering if they were from a Canadian designer.

His spokesperson revealed they were from "Canada's Shoe-ru," Toronto shoe designer and retailer Ron White.

White's "Celebrity Friends" gallery is full of interesting faces, from Céline Dion to Bill Clinton. 

Laureen Harper's been spotted sporting his footwear too, so perhaps it's no coincidence that Baird, who sometimes accompanies the prime minister's wife at events, would be familiar with White's collection.

Joseph Lavoie, Minister Baird's press secretary, writes that Baird is "always proud to promote local Canadian talent and entrepreneurship to foreign dignitaries."

(And for those concerned about White's not-inexpensive shoes adding to the already not-small cost of the Royal visit last summer, Lavoie adds: "As Minister Baird is always cognizant of 'treading lightly' on the Canadian treasury, there was no cost to Canadian taxpayers for this gift.")