David Gratzer  David George Gratzer (born September 5, 1974) is a physician, columnist, author, Congressional expert witness; he was a senior fellow at both the Manhattan Institute and the Montreal Economic Institute. Though he has written essays on topics as diverse as obesity and political campaigns, he is best known for his first book, published by ECW Press, when he was just 24: "Code Blue: Reviving Canada's Health Care System". That book won the Donner Prize established by the Donner Canadian Foundation and was a national bestseller in his native Canada. Gratzer is a critic of the Canadian health care system, and of U.S. President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals. Gratzer was health care policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. Gratzer born September 5, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gratzer's father, George, is a professor of mathematics at the University of Manitoba who emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1963 and to Canada in 1966. Gratzer's mother, Catherine, is a retired dentist. Gratzer's older brother earned his medical degree and now practices in the United States as a psychiatrist. Gratzer earned a B.Sc. at the University of Manitoba in 1996, was president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU) during his final undergraduate year 1995–1996, and was appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba to the University of Manitoba Board of Governors for four successive years from 1994 to 1998. In his early years, Gratzer was not particularly interested in health policy issues. As he noted later:  Gratzer attended medical school at the University of Manitoba from 1996 to 2000 and earned an M.D. in 2000. On November 15, 1996, during his first year of medical school, the "Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)" published a letter to the editor from Gratzer criticizing a June 15, 1996 "CMAJ" report comparing reserve funds held by the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) to those held by medical malpractice insurers in the United States. While in medical school, Gratzer was a regular contributor of opinion columns to "National Post", wrote a weekly opinion column for the "London Free Press" and the "Halifax Sunday Herald", and wrote columns on health care that appeared in several major newspapers and magazines, including the "Toronto Star" and "Ottawa Citizen" and "Calgary Herald". A 1997 Gratzer column "Being a young conservative is nothing to apologize for" said "I am a conservative.