Health Equity in Canada

Canada provides an excellent example of how political and economic forces can trump the best intentions of health researchers and workers attempting to promote health equity. While Canadian contributions to concepts of health equity have been so extensive as to provide Canada with a reputation as a 'health promotion powerhouse,' in reality, Canadian action on improving health equity by addressing the social determinants of health has been profoundly lacking. Health inequities in Canada are widespread and manifest in numerous indicators of health such as life expectancy, infant mortality, disease incidence and mortality, and injuries at every stage of the life course. In addition, Canadian public policy has served to weaken the quality of the social determinants of health to which Canadians are exposed, bidding poorly for the future. In this article I present the reasons why this may be the case and the means for reversing these trends.