This is Public Health: A Canadian History

A year or so ago I got involved (rather unwillingly) in preparations for the centennial celebration of the Canadian Public Health Association. CPHA was founded 100 years ago, in 1910. I've been on a committee concerned with the history of public health in Canada. A prominent part of the "history project" has been a book describing the history and development of pubic health and public health services in Canada. At first this looked like being a disaster. The early drafts of the chapters were atrocious, almost unreadable, very poorly written, too much emphasis on some details and not even a mention of other relevant and important aspects. The organizers of the centennial celebrations have been fortunate: two women, Sylvia Fanjoy and Sue Sullivan, came to the rescue. Between them they completely rewrote the drafts of the chapters in the history book, made them readable, indeed made them a pleasure to read, keyed into the text a large number of very apt illustrations and side-bars about historically interesting and important characters who contributed to the advance of public health in Canada, in short, breathed life into the book. Now it seems to me that instead of an embarrassment to all who have been associated with the project, there is a piece of work that we can all be pleased and proud to be associated with. Sylvia Fanjoy, with some help from others, has also created an exhibit about public health in Canada that will appear at the Centennial conference in Toronto in ten days or so from now. So far I've seen only snippets of this on my computer screen. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the real thing when i go to Toronto at the end of the week. If it's as good as I expect it to be, I hope this exhibit will tour across Canada after the conference. Not only is it educationally enlightening, I think it's probably an excellent recruitment vehicle to attract eager young enthusiasts into the public health profession.