The Ottawa Charter at 25 (INVITED COMMENTARY‪)‬

On November 21, 2011, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion turns 25 (1)--a quarter of a century, an entire generation old! The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) paid tribute to this important document, the International Conference that gave rise to it, and some of the key people behind it at the Association's annual Awards ceremony in June. It is perhaps hard now to recognize just how dramatic and significant the Ottawa Charter was at the time of its creation, both for the values it espoused and the ideas it presented. It strengthened Canada's position internationally as a leader in what was then--and many would argue is still--an emerging field. And it placed on the agenda for health promotion and public health a set of issues and challenges that to this day we are a long way from fully addressing. I place health promotion and public health together deliberately here because it is worth recalling that the subtitle of the 1986 International Conference was "The move towards a new public health" and the Charter states right at the outset that the conference was "a response to growing expectations for a new public health movement around the world". So why a 'new' public health? What was wrong with the 'old' one?