Hm. It's not clear to me that the Americans are inventing things and Canadians are copying. More like the reverse.

All that web technology? Running on Nortel switches. Using Canadian-invented XML. People using their Canadian RIMs. Web CT? Canadian. E-Learning 2.0? Canadian.

The Dash-8 commuter aircraft? Canadian. I flew on one in Africa. Bombardier's CRJ? Canadian. I don't much like it, but airlines love it - it's fast and cheap. I flew one of them in New Zealand. We would be world leaders in fighter aircraft too, if the Avro Arrow is any indication, but the Americans made us stop. We're just a little, you know, too good.

For a country that is 10 percent the size of the U.S. we certainly play above our weight in the entertainment industry. Forget about Anne Murray and Paul Anka. Think Shania, Nellie, Nickleback and of course Neil Young. Think Alex Trebeck, Rich Little and Monty Hall. And the Scud Stud.

Clothing? I was recognized as Canadian in Europe because of my Roots backpack. I used to wear a SunIce parka. Oh, and mukluks, of course.

Yes, no doubt there are some imaginative Americans. I'm happy for them. But the suggestion that we're second rate, that we have stopped inventing and innovating, well, that's just empirically false.