Competent professionals and modern methods: state medicine in British Columbia during the 1930s

Little has been written about the formation of state medicine in early-twentieth-century Canada, particularly during the Depression era. Indeed, many historians and policy analysts have assumed that this was a time of stagnation and retrenchment in state health provision. To foster a more nuanced analysis of the formation of the Canadian medical state during the Depression decade, this article focuses on British Columbia and the public health initiatives brought in by the provincial Liberal government of T. D. Pattullo. In B.C., an energetic cadre of policymakers and bureaucrats sought to reform existing services by using professionally educated personnel, centralized administrative hierarchies, community education, and the surveillance of target health populations. Funding from the provincial government and the Rockefeller Foundation permitted considerable expansion in a range of public health sectors that included vital statistics, rural health centers, tuberculosis and venereal disease treatment schemes, and laboratory services. This article tells the story of this important period by bringing together details of the professional and personal lives of key individuals--the majority of whom were men--and exploring the new provincial health programs that were developed in B.C. during the interwar years.