Background
Blair was born in Caledon, Ontario, Canada.
Blair was born in Caledon, Ontario, Canada.
After graduating from high school Doctor Blair taught school for four years before entering the University of Toronto where he graduated in medicine in 1906.
He was re-elected in 1935 and 1940. He spent the following year as an intern, first at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (Groves Memorial) in Fergus, Ontario with the noted surgeon Doctor Abraham Groves, and then at the Burnside Maternity Hospital in Toronto where he gained experience in obstetrics. In 1907 he moved to Cutler in Northern Ontario under contract to the lumbering companies in that area.
During the next few years he practiced in Ethel and then Rosemont, finally settling in Arthur, Ontario in 1918.
He was a family doctor who gained a reputation as an exceptional obstetrician and as a keen diagnostician in the days before diagnostic tools such as X-rays were available. In 1930 the Liberal Association of North Wellington offered him the nomination for the upcoming federal election.
North Wellington was a largely rural riding and had sent a Conservative member to Ottawa for many years. He loved his work in Ottawa and was on a number of Parliamentary Committees including the Special Committee on the Criminal Code, the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization, and the Standing Committee on Banking and Commerce.
“In his parliamentary career, he was a constant advocate of such things as pensions for the aged and the principle of family allowances.
He stood, too, for the elimination of capital punishment by hanging and was a consistent advocate of reciprocity and greater trade with the United States.” On many of these issues Doctor Blair was well in advance of his times. The Old Age Pension was introduced in 1927 but it was not until 1951 that it became universal and without restrictions. The death penalty was not eliminated until 1975, and the Free Trade Agreement was not enacted until 1987.
Doctor Groves performed the first known appendectomy in North America on a kitchen table on May 10, 1883.
He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1930 election as a Member of the Liberal Party to represent the riding of Wellington North. Doctor Blair was well respected by members of all parties. Reminiscing about Doctor Blair’s life as a Member of Parliament the Guelph Mercury summarized his career in an article published on May 20, 1950.
The Family Allowance Acting was passed in 1944 by a unanimous vote while Doctor Blair was still a sitting Member of Parliament.