Our inaugural winner holds crowds captive in Toronto and Montreal

When we launched the Bloomberg Manulife Prize in May last year, we were excited, ambitious and set the standard high for would-be applicants. But we could never have imagined that our inaugural winner would be such a world-renowned leader in his field, or that his message would be so simple and easy for us implement into our daily lives.

On the evening of Wednesday, January 11th, the MaRS centre in Toronto was packed full of McGill grads and friends, prize founders, sponsors, and media there to hear Dr. Steven Blair deliver this message - and he did not disappoint. After warm introductions from Vice-Principal Marc Weinstein, Dean Hélène Perrault, and Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, the South Carolina professor delivered a fascinating talk on what he has learned over four decades of research in the field of active health.

An engaging and funny speaker, Dr. Blair - who by his own admission is short, fat and balding, but in better shape than most of us - spoke about his concern that the 'obesity cartel' is distracting our attention away from the real public health problem of the 21st Century: physical inactivity. He argued again and again, with impressive supporting data, that weight is of much less importance than fitness, and that if we begin to incorporate more exercise into our lives, the obesity epidemic will take care of itself.


Following the presentation, moderator Beatrice Politi, health reporter from Global Toronto, put some thought-provoking questions to Dr. Blair, followed by queries from an eager audience. The night ended with wine, hors d'oeuvres and a line of fans waiting to speak with our richly-deserving winner.

The following day, another 300 souls braved much colder conditions to join us in the ballroom of the McGill Students Union in Montreal, where Dr. Blair gave a lunchtime presentation - expanding on many of the themes he had outlined in Toronto. Guests munched on a healthy brown-bag lunch while moderator Jill Barker - health columnist for The Gazette - and a PhD student from the faculty of education put their questions to him.

We could not have hoped for a winner who so embodies the values of this prize, and we wish him every success in the future. His message - 30 minutes of exercise per day - is a modest goal for us all, but as Dr. Steven Blair has shown, it is one of the most important lifestyle changes we could ever make.

Congratulations Dr. Blair, and all who were involved in making our prizegiving events such a success. We have high hopes for the calibre of future winners and are excited about the Bloomberg Manulife Prize in 2012.


In the meantime, keep an eye on our facebook and twitter feeds for up-to-date active health news, views and tips. You can also find photos from both of our January events on our flickr page.