Histories of public health reform in Canada rarely mention New Brunswick, even though its innovative Department of Health, established in 1918, was the first full ministry of health in Canada. This paper traces the institutionalization of this public health reform by a small group of New Brunswick physicians, united by their immersion in American medical training and innovative public health ideologies. It reframes explanations of the rise of public health reform in Canada by widening an explanatory lens to encompass the exclusive influence of American models of disease and public health. It also breaks a negative regional stereotype of New Brunswick by highlighting the potential for reform and innovation in small and ostensibly less modern regions.

Abstract. In the fall of 1918 when war-weary New Brunswickers were hit by the influenza pandemic, theirs was the only Canadian province with a Minister of Health, the first to be appointed anywhere in the British Empire. But it was a new position and a controversial one. This paper traces the growth of a public health movement in New Brunswick in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the campaign for the establishment of a provincial Department of Health, and the role played by the 1918 influenza epidemic in legitimizing and consolidating the newly minted Department, masthead of the public health movement.Résumé. Durant l'automne de 1918, alors que les citoyens du NouveauBrunswick, déconcertés par la guerre, luttaient contre une pandémie de grippe, leur province était la seule au Canada à avoir un ministre de la santé, le premier désigné dans l'Empire britannique. Mais cette position était nouvelle et controversée. Cet article décrit la naissance du mouvement de santé publique au Nouveau-Brunswick à la fin du 19 ème et le début du 20 ème siècle, la campagne pour l'établissement d'un ministère de la santé ainsi que le rôle joué par l'épidémie de la grippe de 1918 dans la légitimation et la consolidation du tout nouveau ministère en tant que meneur du mouvement de la santé publique.

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