a 28 percent stock plunge on June

l their baby to the world from the balcony of cheap bridal gowns Buckingham Palace for the first time?Unusually, no bets are being taken from British punters on how big the crowd might be.But it is a certainty that the turnout will be enormous.will be a second coming of age for the 31-year-old prince.The Duke of Cambridge’s first coming of age was that brutal day in 1997 when as a 15-year-old he joined his brother, Harry, his father, Charles, his grandfather, Philip and his maternal uncle, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, in the long, grim walk from the Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey to attend his mother’s state funeral.Like hundreds of thousands of others, I had camped out overnight to catch a glimpse of Diana’s horse-drawn cortege as it passed through Whitehall.Despite all the crowds there wishing him all the best that sunny September morning, and a television audience that in Britain alone was said to number 38 million people, William was not only bereft, he looked bewildered and unhappy with the very public life into which he had been born.RelatedKate Middleton baby has 9-1 odds to be named Victoria, 200-1 odds to be named BarackIs Kate baby watch centred on the wrong hospital?Rumours of royal ruse grow as media waitThe best royal baby merchandise!Steve Murray tells you what you wish you were able to buyPlace your bets: U.bookies offer ‘royal baby specials’ as shops stock up on memorabiliaThat is why it is such a pleasure to see him today.By all accounts he is grounded, calm and happy with his lot as he prepares to open a new chapter with a young woman whom he apparently dotes on and who seems better suited to manage the turbulent life in a fish bowl than his mercurial late mother was.I have spent some time recently in Egypt, where the size of the protests for and against the governments of the moment have been greatly exaggerated by the media.There have been absurd estimates of 30 million men and women protesting simultaneously across vintage lace wedding dresses that country.Even the crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square have been grossly exaggerated.Where I have estimated no more than 20,000 demonstrators, I hear on CNN or the BBC that 200,000 people were present.When half a million Cairenes have shown up, the world has been told that several million people are there.The biggest crowd that I have ever been part of was Indira Gandhi’s funeral in November 1984.Perhaps three or four million people, many in dazzling ethnic dress, crowded a dusty, rolling landscape that was entirely blanketed by humanity for as far as the eye could see.It has been predicted that that many South Africans will turn out soon in Pretoria to honour and celebrate Nelson Mandela when his long life finally ends.But these funerals were exceptional, one-off events.Whether it be for a funeral, a coronation, a wedding or a jubilee, nobody has been able to regularly pull a huge crowd the way the House of Windsor can.Nor has anybody felt a need to inflate their numbers.I first heard of this phenomenon long before I witnessed it.My mother told compelling stories of VE-Day when as a Wren serving as a codebreaker in the Royal Canadian Naval Service in London she and hundreds of thousands of others descended on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace to celebrate the allied victory over Hitler with King George VI, his wife, Queen Elizabeth, and Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.I was reminded of the enduring bond between the royal family and their subjects, and the pomp and pageantry that goes with it, when Charles married at St.Paul’s Cathedral and then buried Diana at the abbey, when Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was feted again and again on her 100th birthday and during last spring’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations when heavy rain did not dampen the ardour of millions of Britons who lined the Thames to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s slow procession down the Thames by royal barge.It is into that grand tradition that knee length wedding dresses Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge’s baby is to be born.for the Executive Summary email briefing to get the news delivered straight to your inbox first thing in the morning.Markets: By the numbersGlobal markets Tuesday closeBritain s FTSE 1006,513.Japan s Nikkei14,472.China s Shanghai1,965.Hong Kong s Hang Seng20,683.The International Monetary Fund is upgrading Canada’s growth expectations for this year to 1.but warns overall global conditions remain uneven, weak and perilous.The two-tenths of a percentage point upward revision for Canada follows a first quarter that topped expectations by coming in a relatively strong 2.But the IMF believes it will all come out in the wash.It predicts Canada’s growth rate will rise to only 2.next year, two-tenths less than its previous forecast issued in April.The latest report from the Washington-based organization gives little encouragement to those who have long been calling for the recovery from the crippling 2008-09 great recession to take root.Canadian PressBlackBerry CEO Heins urges patience at AGMBlackBerry Ltd.Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins asked investors for patience at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday, following a surprise quarterly loss last month that raised concerns about its turnaround.The company only introduced its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices about five months ago, and early sales aren’t an indication of its long-term prospects, he said at the meeting, held in BlackBerry’s hometown of Waterloo, Ontario.The new flagship Z10 phone missed estimates in its first full quarter on sale, contributing to a 28 percent stock plunge on June 28.This isn’t just the launch of a new product but a whole new platform.While many will judge us on the basis of one quarter of a single product, we are not a devices-only product.Financial PostCanadian housing market defies skepticsCanadian housing starts were stronger than expected in June and May figures were revised higher, according to data released on Tuesday, the latest report to show the property market rebounding from last year’