Nova Scotia emergency medicine pioneer and politician Dr. Ron Stewart dies at 82

The Nova Scotian who was the driving force behind the modernization of the province's emergency health system has died of cancer. Dr. Ron Stewart was 82 years old.

The son of a Cape Breton coal miner, Stewart worked in health care for more than 50 years in Canada and the U.S., serving as Nova Scotia's health minister and working with Dalhousie University's medical school as a teacher, researcher and mentor.

"Ron is widely regarded as the grandfather of paramedicine in the world," said his friend and colleague Dr. Kirk Magee recently.

"When you look at his resume, his vast accomplishments — and they're truly outstanding — it brings to mind this really grand figure. But when you meet Ron, you could not meet a more humble, nice person."

In 2017, Stewart pledged $1.3 million to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation to set up a research symposium and chair position in the field of emergency medicine. This was money Stewart had saved for his retirement but he felt it would serve a better use providing research to help train the next generation of physicians and paramedics.

In recognition of his contributions to emergency medicine and public health advocacy, he was elevated to the highest rank of the Order of Canada, one of only six Nova Scotians ever to be named Companion.

Early in his career, Stewart moved to California to pursue training in emergency medicine that wasn't available in Canada at the time. He became the first paramedic director in Los Angeles County and was part of the expansion of paramedicine, which saw the replacement of ambulance drivers with trained paramedics who could provide care before patients arrived at hospitals. 

In L.A., Stewart split his time between hospital shifts and ensuring the accuracy of the medical treatment showcased on the NBC television show Emergency! in the 1970s. His role as an adviser on the popular show, which featured paramedics in action, earned him the nickname Doc Hollywood.

From California, Stewart took his expertise to Pittsburgh where he helped establish the Centre for Emergency Medicine, a pioneer training program for paramedics.

Later, as the minister of health in John Savage's cabinet in the early 1990s, Stewart put his reputation and expertise on the line trying to transform Nova Scotia's ailing health-care system.

He was able to convert an ambulance service run mostly by funeral homes into a world-class paramedic system providing almost immediate care.

"There were no unified standards," said Magee. "So when Nova Scotians had an emergency and they called 911, there was no guarantee what would show up at their door [or] at the scene of a crash on the highway."

But Stewart's politically disastrous attempts to consolidate hospital services province-wide created a firestorm that eventually drove him out of cabinet, then out of politics altogether.

"I wasn't a very good politician," Stewart told Magee during a recorded conversation at the Dalhousie Medical School last February.

"I spoke too much and I spoke my mind too much ... I just wanted to get these things done and as quickly as I could because I knew I was not long in the job," he said. 

Former journalist Jim Meek described Stewart's time in office as "tempestuous and chaotic," but said his political influence extended well beyond Nova Scotia's borders.

Meek, the co-author of Stewart's just released memoir, Treat Them Where They Lie, said Stewart successfully lobbied the federal government to end the tobacco company sponsorships of major events.

According to Meek, the federal health minister of the day, David Dingwall, credited Stewart as having been "the driving force among the provincial ministers to get that legislation passed."

After he left provincial politics, Stewart was a powerful voice advocating for a treaty to end the use of landmines.

"He was the leading force in an international group of emergency physicians who drafted it and presented it to the land mines conference in Ottawa," said Meek. "He was the guy who wrote that resolution and presented it to the conference."

In 1997, 133 states signed the Ottawa Convention banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines.

Stewart was named to the Order of Nova Scotia in 2006 and has been recognized for his work nationally and internationally.

His other notable achievements include being named "hero" of emergency medicine by the American College of Emergency Medicine, having a chair established in his name at the University of Pittsburgh and receiving the James O. Page Award for lifetime achievement by the International Association of Fire Chiefs.