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CANADIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Canada has been at the forefront of many things, the problem is that no one knows about it. Let's fix that, eh.

At the outset of WWII Camp X was established in Oshawa, Ontario (just outside of Toronto). This was a super secret camp where Canadians trained secret agents and resistance members in the dark arts of interrogation, assassination, demolition and other aspects of spycraft. The interesting thing is that Camp X trained American personnel which led to the establishemnt of the OSS (Office for Strategic Services) which later became the CIA. Ian Flemming (the creator of James Bond) was trained there and he patterned the character "M" on Canada's master spy William Stevenson (a.k.a. "Intrepid".) To this day, there are secrets about Camp X that will NEVER be revealed.

Speaking of Camp X, the Rock X encription/decription code machine was the world's first computer (which predates the ones the US invented for their atomic research by three years). The reason why it is not as famous as the Uniac or the Brainiac is that the Rock X was used for inter-embassy encoded communications until the mid 1980's. Incidentally, unlike other WWII originated enciphering systems, the Rock X code remains unbroken to this day, which makes it the world's record for the longest duration a code existed before being broken.

The landing gear for the Lunar Excursion Module (Apollo moon landing missions) was designed and build in Canada. As was the space shuttle arm, formerly known as the Canadarm.

James Naismith (a Canadian) invented the game of Basketball in a YMCA gym in New York city.

The concept of Peacekeeping was invented by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (which won him the Nobel Peace Prize).

Bombardier perfects the world's first over snow motorized vehicle. The company eventually goes onto marketing the very commercially successful Ski Do, which has become the word Canadians use instead of snowmobile. "Let's go ski-doing, eh!" and "Stay on the ski-do trail, eh." are often heard on cold winter days.

The supervisor for the construction of the Trans Canada railway established a concept, which evolved into the modern time zones, in the 1800's.

Canada has a proud wartime heritage. No Canadian army unit has ever retreated in the face of the enemy in the history of Canada (often times even when higher command ordered them to retire from the battle). In WWI and WWII if there was a dirty job, they sent in the Canadians and the job got done. Even when overrun by the enemy, Canadian field commanders routinely called in artillery on their own positions in order to prevent the enemy from capturing their positions.

The Canadian campaign in the Netherlands shortened WWII considerably allowing the port of Antwerp to be opened, making the resupply problems after D-Day virtually disappear. (The Dutch honour Canadian bravery to this day.)

Canadians were respected by the allies and litterally feared by the Nazi troops. Nothing seemed to stop them. Even George S. Patton admired the Canadian tenacity in battle. He was (loosely) quoted as saying; "Give me more of those Canadian bastards and I'll win this damned war in a week." (or words to that effect).

This tenacity was not without it's price. Canadian units have always had the highest casualty rates.

Canadian science fiction writer William Gibson (Difference Engine, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome, Virtual Light and the short story/screenplay Jonny Mnemonic) coined the term "cyberspace" and described a virtual internet world that predated the world wide web.

Canadian pilot "Wop" May shot down Baron Manfred von Richtoven (a.k.a. Red Baron) in WWI. Incidentally, it was one of May's first combat sortees.

NEW

Canada invented the Avro Arrow a fighter/interceptor aircraft which was far, far ahead of its time. In fact nothing else could have matched it for two decades, had it been adopted. All of them were destroyed because of a technicality with the USA. The misconception is that the Prime Minister at the time (Pearson) decided that if Canada wanted to maintain good defence trade relations with the US, producing our own jet fighter would alienate the American defence industry and the government. In all actuality is was because the Canadian government had a choice between spending money on defence or on social welfare programs. Social welfare programs won out and Canada took its first step to becoming a socialist country.

Canadian doctors Banting and Best invented insulin, saving millions of diabetics from certain death.

The Bluenose, which hailed from Nova Scotia, was one of the best racing schooners in the world. The Bluenose I was undefeated. It struck a reef and sank in the early 1900's. The Bluenose II can be seen in Halifax Harbour almost year-round, The Bluenose II is so much of a Canadian institution it's on the Canadian dime. (Incidentally I worked on the Bluenose one summer as a student and some of my relatives were shipwrights who laid the keel of the Bluenose I and worked on the hull of the BLuenose II (just not the same relatives).

Do you know of a Canadian accomplishment not listed here? Drop me a line, eh.