Duncan Sinclair joins the Order of Canada

Jeff Green | Jan 08, 2020

Buck Lake’s Duncan Sinclair was one of 77 Canadians who were invested as members of the Order of Canada last week, in recognition of his contributions to the health care system in Canada. Dr. Sinclair was born in Rochester, New York and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph, before going on to receive a Masters in Science at the University of Toronto, and a PHD in Physiology from Queen’s. He spent most of his academic career at Queen’s, where he was appointed as the Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine in 1966. He served as the Dean of Arts and Sciences between 1974 and 1983. When he was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1988, he became the first non-medical doctor to head a faculty of medicine in Canada.

He retired from Queen’s in 1996 but has remained active in community efforts since then, and as a consultant in the field of health care reform, which remains a passion of his to this day. He chaired the Ontario Health Services Restructuring Commission between 1996 and 2000 and true to his reputation for frank discourse, was the co-author of a book in 2005, Riding the Third Rail, that that was an account of the successes and failures of the commissions efforts, and the subsequent outcomes over the 5 years that followed its demise.

The themes covered in Riding the Third Rail are almost identical to the discussions that are underway during the current healthcare reform effort, and Duncan Sinclair remains involved in the process in an informal way. It is fair to say that anyone who has had a leadership role in healthcare reform in Ontario over the last 25 years is familiar with Sinclair’s perspective, through his writings, and likely through personal contact. And his phone keeps ringing.

Locally he is an active community member, from his support for the Buck Lake Boatilla, his service to the Board of Directors of Southern Frontenac Community Services for 5 years, and as an informal advisor to anyone interested in a clear-eyed, insightful opinion.

He is not the first member of his family to become a member of the Order of Canada. He joins his son, Gord, bassist for the Tragically Hip, who was appointed in 2017.

The other Kingston appointee this year also has a Frontenac County connection. Queen’s University geographer, Brian Osborne, did a lot research and writing on Kingston and the surrounding region as part of his long and distinguished career. He wrote a chapter, “The Farmer and the Land” in the only comprehensive work on the history of Frontenac County, “County of a Thousand Lakes”, which was funded by Frontenac County and published in 1982.