Why should we celebrate Canada Day? How about this list of Great Canadian inventions, excerpted from the Nov. 2003 Report on Business Magazine:
- Basketball. Dr. James A. Naismith, Phys. Ed. director at McGill University from 1887-1890.
- Electric Light Bulb. By medical student Henry Woodward, 1875. The rights to that patent were bought by one Thomas Alva Edison.
- Electron Microscope. By Eli Franklin Burton of Cecil Hall, and James Hillier and Albert Prebus of the University of Toronto's Dept. of Physics, 1938.
- Heart Pacemaker. By Dr. Wilfred Bigelow, Dr. John Callaghan, and electrical engineer John Hopps, 1950.
- Insulin. By Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip, and John McLeod of the University of Toronto, 1922.
- Musical Synthesizer. By scientist & engineer Hugh LeCaine, 1945. We needed those so we could also produce Rush.
- Newsprint. By Charles Fenerty, 1838. Charles considered himself to be a poet, but by some strange coincidence, his family operated several paper mills. Now that's helping the ol' family business, boyo! But you know, you really should have patented the invention.
- PainT Roller. Yup, the one people use every day in their homes etc. Toronto inventor Norman Breakey came up with that one 1940. To all you folks who have ever had to paint a house, you're welcome.
- Standard Time. The whole bit with time zones, etc? That's Sir Sanford Fleming's work in 1878. Along the way, he also managed to play a big role in engineering Canada's transcontinental railroad, successfully championed the Trans-Pacific telegraph cable which was laid from Vancouver to Australia, and designed the first Canadian postage stamp. Indeed, it was the havoc local time was playing with his beloved railway schedules that led to the invention of Standard Time.
- Walkie-Talkies. Inventor Donald L. Hings, 1942.
- Zipper. Electrical engineer Gideon Sundback, 1913. Maybe if he had been a mechanical engineer, we wouldn't be getting caught in them all these years later. Guys, you know what I mean.
Happy Canada Day!
Bull S*** on the basketball claim!
Naismith may have had a stint at a Canadian school, but the game of basketball was invented - and played - on the grounds of Springfield College in Springfield, MA, where he was physical education instructor, in 1891
Pietro, Naismith was a Canadian. Baketball was invented on American soil, by a Canadian. Read your link carefully.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Time Zone issue. For some reason, I thought that that was an American idea.
However, if my country had invented something called a 'Pain Roller' I probably wouldn't brag about it. I feel really lucky that such a thing never caught on in the States.
Pain Roller? Who knew Canadadians were masochists? And they've always seemed like normal, laid-back people. Jeesh, you think you know someone...
Canadadians? Who knew they were so paternalistic?
and half of Hollywood is Canadian:
William Shatner
Lorne Greene
Andrea Martin
Martin Short
Dave Foley
Mike Meyers
Jim Carrey
Rae Dawn Chong
Tommy Chong
Helen Shaver
Dan Ankroyd
Raymond Burr
Michael J. Fox
Glenn Ford
Matt Frewer
Donald/Keifer Sutherland
Jay Silverheels
Christopher Plummer
Phil Hartman
Walter Huston
James Doohan
To which we must add:
Pamela Anderson
Neve Campbell
Jillian Hennessy (Law & Order, Crossing Jordan)
Natasha Henstridge
Lois "Moneypenny" Maxwell
Carrie-Ann Moss
Shannon Tweed
You forgot AM radio by Reginald Fessenden in 1906, and the snowmobile sometime in the '30s I think.
It is, however, impossible not to note that this list of inventions stops in 1945, right about at the peak of Canada's military power and greatness. I might concede two or three great Canadian /developments/ thereafter -- notably the Avro Arrow (which would still be a quite respectable fighter today), the Athabaska-class destroyer with its incredible fantail and superb manoeuvrability (both in the late '50s) and the Canadarm robotics system--but it has been mostly downhill for nearly two generations.
This decline is associated with both the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation (1949) and the spread of government health care. It is at least debatable that there is also a causal link to the growth of welfare and equalization payments.
Canada has come to depend on its resources rather than its resourcefullness, for the simple reason that many (most?) enterprising Canadians have headed southward--where the opportunities are greater, the regulation less intrusive, the bureaucracy smaller and the taxes lower.
Rather a sad story, really. Greatness squandered in the search for economic ease and security.
hey! how about:
Nelly Furtado
Shania Twain
Sarah Brightman
Céline Dion
Natscha Saint Pier
etc.
great talent!
Gabriel Gonzalez:
Could you clarify your previous post? I can't tell whether you're praising or condemning! ;-)
And while we're on the subject this seems like a good time to tell my favorite Canadian story. Some time ago I read a story written by a Canadian journalist (I don't remember the name) in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The journalist wrote: "We could have had the best of everything. We could have had English traditions, French cuisine, and American technology. We ended up with American traditions, English cuisines, and French technology."
It's told with love, Joe! ;-)
Molson beer! The only thing from Canada that really matters.
You've forgotten the joy and wonder of Alanis Morissette! Please do not send us any more music stars. Thank you.
Bart, as a Canadian (on leave in the UK) I agree entirely. This is not to pick on Joe, but his post is representative of the kind of grasping desperation Canadians tend to have when searching for something to be proud of about their country. We have to look to the past because there's not a whole lot to be proud of in the present. The nation's gotten soft and apathetic in the last 40 years. I look at what my country could be, then I look at what it is and it frustrates and depresses me.
Rex,
It frustrates and depresses me too. BUT, Canada Day is a day of celebration. It isn't "desperate" to compile lists like this, it's entirely appropriate. And those lists need not be related to recent history only.
I say this to the Left in Canada and America frequently (who are similarly frustrated and depressed by their countries, albeit for different reasons) - unless you can start from a point that generally loves, respects, and defends the country and its people as they are, you will get nowhere in creating the kind of country you want it to be.
Just as using July 4th to blast George Bush is both an act of monumental stupidity and evidence of a deeper attitude that deserves censure, using Canada Day to talk about what's wrong with Canada also strikes me as unwise and symptomatic of more fundamental resentments that block the changes you want to see.
The Liberal Party of Canada has worked very hard to define disagreement with its platform as un-Canadian and tantamount to treason. When you run down Canada on Canada Day because you disagree with its current direction, you've bought into and legitimized that characterization.
Don't.
Sorry for my moodiness, Joe. You're right about one thing -- letting frustration taint my attitude toward my own country accomplishes nothing. Positive changes are far more likely to succeed when one approaches things with a positive mindset. That's one of the reasons I like WoC. Thanks.
(I am also inspired to blog... hmm...)
Rex,
S'okay. It has been a pretty frustrating week.
And let me know if we can help with the blogging thing. We can use more voices that bridge North America with Britian and/or Europe.
and what happened to Meg and Jennifer Tilly? (I can understand for political reasons most of WoC disclaims Peter Jennings).
I went to grade school with Gideon Sundback's great(-squared?)-grandson. They were still earning royalties on some of the zipper licenses.
Don't forget, in 1915
Canadian, Cluny Macpherson designed a fabric 'smoke helmet' with a single exhaling tube, impregnated with chemical sorbents to defeat the airborne chlorine used in the gas attacks. Macpherson's designs were used and modified by allied forces and are considered the first to be used to protect against chemical weapons.