Canada Firsts: Ralph Nader's Salute to Canada and Canadian Achievement.

• Author: Nore, Gordon W.E.

As Canadians, we're used to being told that we have this huge inferiority complex, particularly when it comes to the United States. Personally, I haven't felt that way since I forked over $150 (U.S.) cash in the emergency room of Paducah Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, after the doctor had a peek at my little boy's chronically infected ears and announced that he had an ear infection. Perhaps it was at that moment that whatever it is inside my heart that is Canadian began to beat a little prouder. Not even the cheaper American beer or gasoline could stem my renewed nationalism.

For Canadians who do need an ego boost or are concerned about the sacrifices Canada is making in the interests of global competition, Ralph Nader, Nadia Milleron, and Canadian Duff Conacher have produced Canada Firsts, which salutes "first and foremost conceive in Canada or by a Canadian." It would be well for Americans to know about it too. The book is divided into chapters on "Historical Achievements," "Communication," "Medicine," "Education and Social Welfare," and so on. Nader et al. wrote Canada Firsts out of concern that growing economic globalization threatens to "reduce the justice standards of the leading nations toward the lowest common country denominators."

"Taken too far," Nader writes in his introduction, "this international dependence and interdependency can undermine seriously healthy national characteristics of self-reliance, diversity, and governments which are closer and more accountable to the people. In the United States, we call the latter home rule."

Some Canadians will be cheesed at the presumption of an American validating our worth. Others will be cheesed that a book published in Canada uses U.S. spellings. Still others will be cheesed that it costs $14.99 in Canada (plus tax, of course) and $12 in the United States. Axgrinding aside, Nader and his co-authors have largely avoided the urge to gush about the wonders of Canada or patronize Canadians. Further, unlike the histories I read in school, Canada Firsts endeavors to record the contributions of the "first peoples," women, and other "minorities."

Unsettling, however, is the book's roller-coaster ride from the trivial to the profound. On the trivial side, Canadians and Canada can take credit for the McIntosh apple, ginger ale, the robotic Canadarm on space shuttles (let's face it, only Canadians know or care about this thing), the invention of the telephone, green ink, the paint...