A new player entered Canada's health care debate in January, when the federal government named career civil servant Ian Green to replace David Dodge as deputy minister at Health Canada. (Dodge left Health Canada to assume responsibility for the health of the Canadian dollar — he was named governor of the Bank of Canada.) Green, 52, began his career by working for Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark from 1974 to 1980. He then joined the Privy Council Office and rose quickly through the ranks to become an assistant deputy minister in the health department in 1987.
Since then he has held senior posts in several large departments. Green's CV is not studded with the kind of academic credentials that his predecessor's boasted, but he is known as an unflappable manager. Green will have to carry through on the work started by Dodge, who conducted a major shakeup at Health Canada that included a total structural reorganization and the naming of a chief scientist. —