Mark Osborne Humphries, The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada

Abstract

By 1919, Frederick Montizambert, Canada's Director-General of Public Health, had managed Canada's system of maritime quarantine for more than half a century. When the nation established its first federal Department of Health that year, he anticipated appointment as the Deputy Minister, seeing in the role a final triumph and a fitting tribute to his years in service to Canadians' health. But Montizambert watched from the sidelines as Dr John Amyot, a scientist, professor of hygiene and director of Ontario's public health laboratory, was chosen. Not long after, Montizambert was forced into retirement. As the nation modernised its public health system and embarked on a positive effort to build a healthy Canada from the inside, Montizambert was dismissed as an anachronism whose focus on a negative system of protection had served Canadians badly when influenza invaded the country the year before. Montizambert's story provides a fitting vignette to close Mark Osborne Humphries' splendid new book, which argues that it was precisely this failure that finally moved Canada to reconceptualise its approach to public health.