He moved to the Lamont region of Alberta in 1903 as a Methodist medical missionary, and worked as a pioneer doctor, often travelling by dirt roads to treat his patients.
The committee subsequently recommended the establishment of separate rural and urban health plans, in which the government would pay two-ninths of the total cost.
As president of the CMA, Archer chaired a special meeting wherein the assembled delegates voted 73-0 in favour of a health insurance plan for Canada.
He supported Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's national health insurance proposal in 1945, and travelled the country to promote the plan.
[6] Archer was a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in the federal elections of 1940 and 1945, running in the rural Alberta riding of Vegreville.