David M Baltzan: Prairie Doctor

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University and the author of Nations Are Built of Babies: Saving
Ontario’s Mothers and Children.

This lively and concise biography is the 18th in an ongoing series
sponsored by the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine. David
Baltzan is perhaps best remembered for his part in the watershed Royal
Commission on Health Services, established in 1960. The Commission’s
controversial findings and recommendations, documented in the Hall
Report, became the blueprint for the medicare system that continues—
although not unmodified or unchallenged—to this day. As Clemence
notes, Baltzan’s support for Hall’s vision of a government-funded
universal health-care system placed him decidedly “at odds with many
in his profession.”

The first chapter of this biography details Baltzan’s role in the
Commission and provides valuable information for those interested in the
roots of medicare and its current woes. Clemence then proceeds backward
to discuss Baltzan’s own history, which in many ways resembles the
traditional narrative of immigration. From his earliest days in practice
in Saskatchewan, Baltzan was innovative and progressive in his approach
to health care. Clemence details the ins and outs of his establishment
of a practice in the new specialty of internal medicine, telling us much
about the challenges of such an enterprise in the isolated, newly
settled prairie west before World War II. Baltzan became the first
medical director of the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic, and he was instrumental
in setting up the first medical-care cooperative in
Depression-devastated Saskatchewan. By the time they became friends in
1930, Baltzan and Emmett Hall had already set their paths toward what
would become their lifetime achievement in the Hall Report.

Although Clemence does include the recollections of Hall and of various
others who knew Baltzan personally, one wishes that he had developed
this oral testimony more thoroughly. Hall, for example, appears only
briefly, and his comments on his good friend add little to the portrait
of an obviously complex and driven individual. Nevertheless, this book
fulfils its mandate of introducing readers to a talented and dedicated
individual who made lasting contributions to our medical history.