Canadians

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - The can't-miss gold medal didn't slip from the grasp of the U.S. women's hockey team last night, it was yanked away by a determined Canadian team that wanted it more. The final score was 3-2, but it was not an indicator of the lopsided play. The Canadians outhustled and outplayed the Americans, who looked flat from the first faceoff until the final buzzer, and never really threatened to repeat their gold medal of 1998. Even the capacity American crowd didn't get into the game until the final three minutes.

CRITICS of Canada's medical-care system contend that it is no model for America and that its good reputation vastly exceeds its mixed performance.Their claims that Canada's program is less effective and no less costly than America's, and that it is beset by horrific waiting lists and unhappy doctors, are caricatures.This myth-making is predictable. Because Canada has restrained its health care costs more successfully than we have, those who feed at America's $800 billion medical feast are frightened.

President Bush wisely says he wants to stay out of Canada's domestic turmoil as our neighbor to the north wrestles with the problem of Quebec and its push for secession.Yesterday a special legislative committee recommended that a referendum on independence be held next year. The way things look now, there seems little doubt the separatists would win.Quebec has offered an alternative to independence. But it demands so many concessions from the central government that it would leave Ottawa little more than a shell and would lead residents of the other provinces to become more like Quebec in thinking of themselves as provincials first and as Canadians a distant second.

PRESIDENT CLINTON should waive Title III of the FTC Helms-Burton Act for six months because it is an affront to friendly nations by purporting to legislate their citizens' behavior outside America's borders, and because the reprisals it triggers will harm U.S. interests more than the law can possibly advance them.Title III allows U.S. companies to sue in U.S. courts for damages from foreign companies that may be using property confiscated from Americans by the Cuban government in 1959. A wrinkle that defies all ex post facto restraints would allow Cubans who later become U.S. citizens to sue, extending their U.S. citizenship as well as the law backward in time.

Since the World Cup lacked the pageantry of last summer's World Championships, the United States decided to create some fireworks of its own last night.Firing past the Canadian defense with ease, the U.S. team celebrated early and often during its 20-10 rout in front of 4,783 at Homewood Field. The Americans, whose national team has won seven World Championships, swept the first best-of-three World Cup series with the victory.Casey Powell, the World Cup's Most Valuable Player, recorded another standout performance with five goals and one assist.

THE CANADA that we see from south of the border is bilingual and multicultural coast-to-coast. It has its own constitution with its version of a bill of rights. It goes its own way in foreign policy, often as United Nations peace-keepers. Canada was not always that way. Pierre Elliott Trudeau introduced all this while prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984. It was not easy to achieve. Many English-and French-speaking Canadians were dragged along kicking and screaming. But his vision of Canada was the only alternative in Quebec to a language-, heritage- and religion- based provincialism, rebelling against second-class citizenship, which would have destroyed Canada for something else that, even now, is difficult to imagine.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- A thing of beauty, it was not. But playing Canada to a foul-filled, scoreless draw last night advanced the U.S. Under-23 men's soccer team within a win of going to this summer's Olympics in Australia. The Americans will face Guatemala here at 8 p.m. Friday, with the victor earning one of two Olympic berths from North and Central America and the Caribbean. Mexico, which easily beat Panama last night, will face Honduras in Friday's night's other semifinal, the winner of that 5: 30 game also going to Sydney.

Immunology Stronger flu shot better for seniors For seniors seeking a flu vaccine, more might be better. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that those who received higher-dose vaccinations had a greater immune response to influenza than those who received standard-dose shots. "We think the study provides some hope that a better vaccine, one that will protect a larger portion of the senior population, can be developed," says co-investigator Dr. Robert L. Atmar.