Taylor, Malcolm Gordon (1915-94)

Malcolm Taylor was born on August 31, 1915, at Arrowhead, Alberta. He began teaching in the depths of the Great Depression, but saved enough money to go to Berkeley, where he graduated with a BA (Cum Laude) in 1942, an MA (1943), and a PhD in Political Science in 1949. His doctoral dissertation was entitled “The Saskatchewan Hospital Services Plan.” Returning to Canada, he became a member and research director of the Saskatchewan Health Services Planning Commission (1948-51), and later was research consultant to the Hall Commission. He wrote several books, numerous articles, and made over 300 public addresses while at the Universities of Calgary and Victoria, where he was respectively first principal and first president. Probably his most influential book was Health Insurance and Canadian Public Policy (1978, 1988). He also wrote The Administration of Health Insurance in Canada (1956), The Financial Aspects of Health Insurance (1958), and Insuring National Health Care: The Canadian Experience (1990). Throughout his life he played a fundamental role in assuring full and complete health care for every Canadian. He died in Victoria on September 10, 1994.

John A. Boan