Innovation in Canada is not an oxymoron and there are lots of examples of quite spectacular Canadian innovators to prove it.
For example, way back around 1876, in Brantford, Ontario, inventor Alexander Graham Bell proved his theory about relaying the human voice over wires and the telephone was born. The world’s first wireless message was received by Marconi in 1910 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. And, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable connected the province of Newfoundland with England in 1956. More recently, Research In Motion developed the eponymous Blackberry in Waterloo, Ontario.
With a pedigree like that you’d think we Canadians would be the envy of the world, leading the way in communications gadgetry. Add to that the fact that our neighbour to the South is one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics markets, it seems logical to me that, at the very least, companies would launch their cool new electronic gadgets simultaneously across both of our deserving countries. But that’d be a no. When RIM launched the Blackberry in the U.S. (oh, and France, Germany, the U.K, Austria…) we Canadians sat at home with our flip phones waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Heck, even the Irish got Blackberries before we did. WUWT?
When the much-anticipated Iphone was released, Canadians were once again left gazing longingly across the border waiting for our turn. Last month’s big news that Skype was coming to the Iphone had the Twittersphere all abuzz with excitement, but alas, not available in Canada. Huh?
And that’s not the worst of it. Canadians pay more than almost anyone else in the world for wireless phone service. Yep, we sit on hold for hours at 1-800-Rogers or Bell, waiting to sign up for another 3-year, locked-in, can’t leave even if you die, contract term, and then we pay the highest rates on the planet for the privilege. I just don’t get it.
Is it idiot politicians as suggested by a CTV article that describes Canada’s abysmal position as a global innovator (not!); or are Canadian consumers disinterested in communications gadgetry? Canada’s Research Chair of Internet & e-Commerce Law Michael Geist makes a compelling argument that it has a lot to do with a lack of competitiveness in the Canadian market.
Or perhaps, as many have suggested, we’re a nation of “blah”? A Timmie’s and McDonald’s-loving people who don’t just accept mediocrity, but embrace it. A people striving to maintain the status quo, and criticizing those who dare offer up new ideas.
Or maybe our nation is simply imbued with a remarkable level of patience.
I don’t have the answers and I’ve pretty much sat back grumbling quietly with everybody else, but the Kindle has thrown me over the edge. I’m a voracious reader of books, blogs, magazines, newspapers, journals, billboards, menus and even road signs. If there are words, I’ll pretty much read it. So, when Amazon came out with the “next chapter in wireless reading” I whipped my wallet out faster than my Blackberry could auto dial my best friend, ready to purchase my Kindle and the hundreds, no thousands, of books that I’d load into it.
With visions of reading on beaches, trains, around campfires, in the back garden, anywhere and everywhere I felt like a good read, I clicked through the familiar Amazon check-out pumped with anticipation… and then it happened. The dreaded screen that we Canadians fear more than any other, appeared before me. The good folks at Amazon were very, very sorry, but they could not sell me a Kindle. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not any day in the foreseeable future. All because I am Canadian.
Well I say it’s time to rise up and protest Canada. Plead with our politicians. Write letters to the editors of our local papers. Start a revolution in this country and demand what was promised us way back in 1876 when A.G.B. made that historic call from Brantford, Ontario.
Kindles for Canadians!
Recent Comments