Imagine being the brainiac in school who builds a rocket, but everyone just remembers you for lighting your fart on fire.

That’s Canada in the innovation world.

Sure you know the mainstays of Canadian invention — basketball, insulin, and pineapple on pizza — but how many of these do you know?

In 1955, George Retzlaff, a producer for Hockey Night in Canada, came up with a way to rebroadcast a play within seconds using kinescope film. (Film!) And like every great Canadian contribution, instant replay was initially treated like a neat party trick before being monetized by everyone else on the planet.

Joseph Coyle was a newspaper editor in Smithers BC. He was in his office one day when he overheard a hotel owner and a farmer arguing. The hotelier was mad that half of each week’s delivery of eggs came broken. Coyle went outside, looked at the smashed eggs in the carts, and though thought, “Maybe… separate compartments?” He invented the egg carton in 1911.

The world loves this device which made painting walls suck slightly less. (Because before the roller, painting your wall was like mowing your lawn with scissors.) Invented by Norman Breakey in 1940, who didn’t patent it, couldn’t scale up production, and ended up watching others get rich from his design.

This bouncing baby contraption has soothed generations of cranky infants and preserved the sanity of sleep-deprived parents. It was invented in 1910 by an Ojibwe woman, Susan Olivia Poole, inspired by the Indigenous practice she grew up with of suspending babies in cradle boards from tree branches. She tied a cloth diaper to a broom handle with a spring, and millions of babies now happily bounce their way into stronger legs and a lifelong addiction to adrenaline. But she only patented it in the 1950s. Because even bouncing a baby was considered too radical for the business world when it came from a woman—never mind an Indigenous one.

Herbert McCool was an electrician from Regina who invented Easy-Off in 1932, mixing the chemicals in his basement, and slapping on a label designed by his five-year-old daughter. And like many inventors of his time, he made and sold it from his basement. After his death, his wife Doris continued the business, and eventually sold the rights to U.S. companies.

The Wonderbra was invented by Louise Poirier in 1964, she turned 54 individual engineering elements into a garment that could lift, separate, and start international conversations. It changed lingerie, advertising, and arguably even posture. But we know more about the models who wore it than the genius who created it.

= = =

So the next time someone tells you Canada’s boring, remember: we invented the Wonderbra and instant replay. (You’re welcome, sports bars.)

Innovation, Canadian-style, doesn’t start in boardrooms. It starts when something’s broken, it’s minus thirty, and we mutter, “Forget it, I’ll fix it myself.”

Canada is like the duct tape of countries.

Under-appreciated, indispensable, and holding civilization together one brilliant idea at a time.

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