Description
When Canadians think about health, they almost always start with health care--access to a doctor, to a hospital or to advanced technologies like MRI machines. When asked about what makes them healthy, they might include lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, or quitting smoking. And many are aware that their own health might one day be affected by the same disease--diabetes, heart disease, or cancer--that are part of their family medical history. But what about having a safe job that pays a decent wage? Or affordable housing? Or living in a supportive and safe community? How important are the social, economic, cultural, and political conditions of a society in creating and sustaining the equitable distribution of health in a society like Canada's? What too few people realize is that, as Andre Picard writes in his Foreword to Redistributing Health , 'social justice--or lack thereof has a greater impact on the health of the population than the human genome, lifestyle choice, and medical
