These two quotes concerning New Labour's slavish endorsement of lifestyle health
promotion may have some relevance for Canada.  We know it is relevant for the
USA!  By the way, the [very conservative Ontario provincial] Mike Harris
government allocated $17,000,000 over five years to get the message out that
poor people's cardiovascular disease is due to their smoking, lack of activity
and unhealthy diet.  A task that many public health units have enthusiastically
taken up.


"In the harsh world of politics, New Labour's slavish devotion to
Tina (there is no alternative), fiscal rectitude and electoral
expediency mean that it has no intention, either of raising benefits
to the poor, or of doing anything to reduce income differentials...
Under the banner of health inequalities New Labour has turned health
promotion into a sophisticated instrument for the regulation, not only
of individual behaviour, but that of whole communities."

"For the mass of people, the main effect of the stagnation of society
has been to foster a sense of apprehension and diminished expectations
for the future. If collective aspirations are no longer viable, then
the scope for individual aspirations is also reduced.  The contemporary
preoccupation with the body is one consequence of this: if you cannot do
much to change society or your place in it, at least you can mold your own
body according to your own inclinations."

-Michael Fitzpatrick, The Tyranny of Health, 2001.