 It's
the end of a long day, but Saskatchewan Health Minister
John Nilson is looking relaxed. Sitting back in his Legislature
office, with his substantial beard and formidable stature
he looks every inch the Viking. He's been running the
health portfolio since 2001 -- making him the third- longest
serving health minister in Canada -- so Mr Nilson has
had time to get some perspective on the role. And he's
learned that by far the most useful quality to have in
this job is patience. "It's a complex file," he says,
"so you need a patient disposition to deal with all the
pieces."
And the second most important lesson?
That being top dog in the health ministry means not
just being able to put all the pieces together, but
also remembering to step back and take a look at the
big picture, he says. This means taking a multi-disciplinary
approach to healthcare and acknowledging the fact that
there are a lot of outside factors influencing Saskatchewaners'
health. "The healthiest people in the community are
those who have good housing, good schooling and good
jobs," he says.
Mr Nilson became health minister
just before Kenneth Fyke released his influential report
on medicare in Saskatchewan in April 2001, which recommended
among other things more integration of primary care
service delivery and a focus on quality over volume
of care provided. The department immediately set to
work on an action plan, which they delivered in December
that same year. "The focus is on the long range vision
for healthcare," says Mr Nilson of the plan. "You have
to remind yourself that the broader based perspective
is as important as responding on the acute care side,
although acute care takes the money."
Most recently, Mr Nilson and the
NDP government introduced their Tobacco Control Amendment
Act in May. The act will ban smoking in all public places
in Saskatchewan, keeping the provincial policy in line
with its municipalities, many of which have adopted
anti-smoking bylaws. "Becoming a smoke-free province
is an important public health step, and not an attack
on businesses or communities," said the health minister
in a public statement. "It is an attack on preventable
death and disease."
THIS
POLITICAL LIFE
The health ministry is far from Mr Nilson's first foray
into politics. In 1995 he ran for the NDP and was elected
Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Regina Lakeview
constituency and appointed to cabinet as Minister of
Justice and Attorney General. He served two years as
Minister of Crown Investments before taking on the health
portfolio. The leap from law to justice to health was
a natural one, says Mr Nilson, due in part to the fact
that his wife, Linda, is a doctor, and several members
of his family are healthcare professionals. "Being Minister
of Health is easier than justice," he admits. "There
are ways you can solve problems. In justice, there are
real challenges when it doesn't seem there is a solution.
In health, we're all working together."
NORDIC
EXPOSURE
Mr Nilson credits his Scandinavian background for providing
him with a strong basis for political life. "The Norwegian
perspective and the sense of belonging to the community
with your own personal base is tied to everyone, and
that works well for me in politics," he says. As a young
man he studied in Oslo, where he learned to speak Norwegian,
before getting his law degree from the University of
British Columbia in 1979. He later served as the Consul
of Norway for Saskatchewan from 1991 to 1995 and as
Acting Consul of Denmark in 1994 and 1995.
His Lutheran upbringing also played
a part in his move into politics. His father was a pastor
and "that philosophical perspective around vocation
and service is part of it," he says. Mr Nilson, his
wife and two daughters, Ingrid and Solveig, are active
members of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, as well as the
Scandinavian Club of Regina.
His family moved frequently when
he was a child, but always kept a home in rural Saskatchewan.
That home remains to this day the Nilsons' connection
to the land and to the province's farming tradition.
"Dad and Mum had a farm," he explains. "Twenty years
ago, we bought the land to keep it in the family. My
uncle and cousin run it. It's one quarter section, about
five miles from the Outlook Bridge."
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