"We need more more Canadian sex stories," Tony Clement told an Ottawa crowd during a speech on the government's digital strategy. A roar of laughter prevented him from correcting himself for a few seconds.

"We need more Canadian SUCCESS stories ..." he said pausing to emphasize the correction,"... like RIM and its world-famous — and now ubiquitous — BlackBerry." Teased by reporters about the slip, Clement insisted he had not been thinking about sex.

"The male brain is a very strange organ at times, isn't it? I have no explanation," he said. "It really was not on my mind. I want to stress that for the record. It just sort of blurted out."