DAVID BUTCHER

Biographical Statement
My family emigrated to Canada in 1963 from England. My father is English and my mother Canadian, although they met as missionaries in India. Our initial Canadian home was in Fort Vermilion, Alberta, although we moved to BC's lower mainland in 1967. I attended school in Cloverdale with a brief stint at St. David's School, north of Squamish, graduating in 1977 from Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School. I completed my B.Sc at UBC, interspersed with summer employment as a tour guide on the Hell's Gate Air Tram in the Fraser Canyon and as a member of the BC Forest Service's 'Rapattack' fire fighting crew.

I graduated with my MD from UBC in 1985. Internship at Dalhousie University took me across the country to the Maritimes, where I started clinical practice. A year in New Zealand preceded my return to BC. I have subsequently practiced medicine in northern Ontario and the Northwest Territories.

I am married to Lorraine Conway, a nurse who has also worked as a French teacher, and who is now a student again. We have two daughters and a granddaughter.

Personal Connection
In 2003, my family and I moved back to BC from the NWT. This marks a return for me and an opportunity to introduce my family to the province that gave me an education and the start of my professional career. My high school, undergraduate and medical education all took place on the lower mainland. I was fortunate enough, however, to have a summer job with the BC Forest Service for most of my university years. As a member of the Rapattack helicopter rappel initial attack fire fighting crew, I was stationed throughout BC and had the opportunity to see remote parts of the province that few people ever see. This first hand view of the extent and variety of BC landscape and of the vibrant communities located throughout the province rekindled a desire to practice medicine in a rural/remote setting. My medical career took me further north to the NWT. In Yellowknife, I was privileged to be able to enter into medical politics at an early stage. Through the NWT and Canadian Medical Associations, I participated in advocacy for physicians, patients and the Canadian health care system. This involvement in health system planning brought me, circuitously, back to BC to my current position as VP Medicine for the Health Authority responsible for northern BC. The potential for creative system reforms, particularly with the inauguration of the Northern Medical Program to train doctors in northern BC, was an irresistible draw back to the province of my youth, this time with a family who, I hope, will share my desire to shape BC for the 21st century.