"It doesn't have to be this way"

Clyde Hertzman's sudden and untimely death was a terrible blow to those who knew him. It was also a major loss to health research and policy in canada and well beyond. He was an outstanding public academic, at the top of his intellectual game. here i attempt a highly selective and personal account of how he developed the conceptual framework that he called "the whole enchilada," of the social context influencing both biological and behavioural development from earliest infancy. From these roots spring our life trajectories, evolving social gradients of more--or less--successful experience at each life stage. the international performance of a society reflects the sum of these trajectories. Canada could do much better, but not in Harperland.