Michael Bliss

Professor Michael Bliss, CM, Ph.D, FRSC (born 1941) is a Canadian historian and public intellectual, considered by some to be "outspoken".

Bliss entered the University of Toronto in 1958, and has been there ever since. He received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. there and since 1969 has been a professor in the department of history. One time a student asked him how long he had been at the U of T. "All my life," he said a bit mournfully.

His doctoral dissertation, which was supervised by Ramsay Cook, was a social history of Canadian business, an analysis of the "thoughts and dreams" of businessmen in Canada during the National Policy years. It was published under the title A Living Profit.

Bliss first worked primarily in Canadian political and business history. He has since specialized in the more prestigious field of medical history - his books on two Canadians, the discoverer of insulin Sir Frederick Banting and on the famous physician Sir William Osler have been well received. In 2005 he published a biography of the American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, himself a biographer of Osler.

In 1999 Bliss opposed the NATO bombing of Kosovo.

Like J.L. Granatstein, his criticism of excessively specialized social history has made him a controversial figure in Canadian historiography.

Bliss has been a frequent commentator on Canadian politics for newspapers, magazines, and television.

In 1998, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Quotations
“This equation of health care with the Canadian identity is unhistorical and untrue. We can’t begin to have a serious, adult debate about the future of health care until we abandon the mantra that our national identity is somehow tied up in a state monopoly of health insurance. . . The country was 117 years old in 1984 when the Canada Health Act created the current system by effectively outlawing private medical and hospital services.” - The great myths of medicare, by Michael Bliss in the National Post September 7, 2004.

“Recently, for example, the calls for a reconsideration of Canada's health care problems welled up...Some day, some how, the efforts of the brave souls trying to revive Canadian Conservatism have to be rewarded. Their cause simply can't be abandoned.” - Seeking renewal for a one-party state, by Michael Bliss, May 29, 2001, The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS).

Works

 * A Living Profit: studies in the social history of Canadian business 1883-1911 - 1974.
 * Confederation, 1867: The Creation of the Dominion of Canada - 1975
 * A Canadian Millionaire: The Life and Business Times for Sir Joseph Flavelle - 1978
 * The Discovery of Insulin - 1982
 * Banting: A Biography - 1984
 * Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business - 1987
 * Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal - 1991 (nominated for Governor General's Award)
 * Right Honourable Men: the descent of Canadian politics from Macdonald to Mulroney - 1994
 * William Osler: a Life in Medicine - 1999 (nominated for Governor General's Award)
 * Harvey Cushing: a Life in Surgery - 2005

Michael Bliss