Retiring public health chief looks back on his career

March 2020. As things evolve and the disease ramps up even in North America and in Canada. When the global pandemic reached Nova Scotia, the province's chief medical officer thrust into the limelight. Now, as he prepares to retire, Dr. Robert Strang is looking back on nearly two decades as Nova Scotia's top doctor. I have a huge passion for public health. I've been very fortunate to have a career, but I really believe in kind of the principles of public health and a whole kind of work, which is built around helping you create and support healthy communities. Strang keeps a list on his wall of lessons he learned during the pandemic. Like the importance of caring for your community. As we have a society that more of us need care, whether it's an aging population. In Nova Scotia, we're doing really good work under the remedy to provide community living with adults with disabilities. All those kind of issues. Strang says he felt overwhelming support from Nova Scotians during those years. But he also fielded criticism and harassment from some who weren't happy with Nova Scotia's pandemic response. I expect that as part of my work. You're going to get some people to disagree with you. What really concerned me and made me, I'll say angry, was when that crossed the line and then brought my family into it at my home. And that was totally inappropriate. While many Nova Scotians will remember Strang for his appearances in frequent COVID briefings, his tenure started long before the pandemic. He says he's especially proud to have contributed to tobacco control in the province in the early 2000s. The tobacco industry for generations has, for decades, has worked very hard to recruit the next generation of smokers. When I started in this job, in this work, you know, our smoking rates were about over 30%. For adults and for young people, we're now down to 12, 13%. As Strang's tenure comes to an end, Dr. Jesse Cancier will take over in the new year. I think Dr. Cancier is very well suited to this job. I think he's going to be an excellent chief MOH. And as for Strang, he's looking forward to what comes next. Well, I'm looking at having more time to just be a little healthier, Be more active. My wife and I have actually talked about maybe we can do adult beginner step dancing lessons. Ben Dornan, CBC News, Halifax.