And like, how did you get there? What was what made you want to do it?

I would say if we go really broad, I've always been involved in leadership and putting my name forward, even from even going all the way back, just growing up through school and certainly my medical education.

I was a president of the Medical Student Society at Memorial University, where I trained.

And then I was an executive for President Doctors of BC, where I did my dermatology residency and chief resident position.

Yeah, so I always found it useful to put my name forward.

And I find from different experiences, you'll gain something.

So often you'll gain, what you kind of gain is not necessarily what you were thinking of at the beginning.

okay

Yeah.

E- exactly, yeah.

I mean, we're interested in, you know, in, in, in the health of Canadians and healthy communities.

Um, different communities have different needs, right? Uh, and, you know, in spending a lot of time throughout the country, that's something that I'm s- seeing on the ground by, by, by talking to folks.

Uh, but, you know, we, we really see healthcare as an investment.

There have been advances in models to deliver care to people from coast to coast to coast, but you need investments, right? Whether it's health infrastructure, whether it's recruitment and retention programs, uh, delivery of healthcare models in rural and remote areas, as well as in urban areas.

Uh, and so we really need sustainable, uh, long-term funding.

Hmm

What gives you comfort that this is the right path, that this particular piece of legislation is something worth supporting and can have an impact?

Well, I mean, there's lots.

It's something, like I said, I'm hearing from not just doctors.

I'm hearing from educators.

I'm hearing from parents that they really want to see this fixed.

They want a safer online world for their children going forward.

You know, we know, for example, that there's been a recent settlement for just $17 million in the U.S. and Facebook where they, yeah, it was clear that they knew these harms were built into their algorithms.

When you look at this and you look at the predominance of all manner of social media tools, do you feel like we're in some kind of health crisis as well when it comes to how we deal with social media and technology and its impacts on the well-being of citizens.

So how does this all flow out in the next few years, I guess?

Yeah.

So I'll be president for, for 12 months.

It's, uh, I mean, i- it's a, it's quite a busy position.

It's a, it's a full-time position because really, um, you know, healthcare intersects with many parts of, you know, a, a, a...

in terms of not just something that affects us day-to-day in our lives, but in terms of health advocacy, we look at it from multiple different angles.

So-Part of it is, is, uh, public speaking and kind of changing the, the national discourse, uh, when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Talk a bit about both sides of that a- and how you see the 12 months and, and what you hope to kind of accomplish here.

What do we need to, um, to increase those numbers, to, to get those family doctors and to have, um, that available for the general public?

Uh, well, we need, uh, you know, a lot of things.

The CMA has been fortunate to, uh, to be collaborating with, uh, different governments on this.

So we've been advocating for, uh, reduced administrative burden.

So, uh, doctors, we like to spend time face-to-face with patients instead of, uh, doing administrative work, and the burden is just in-increasing.

So, um, that will, it, it lead to more contact time and being able to see more patients.

Uh, we also know that we need to, uh, do some work in ensuring that, uh, qualified doctors that are already living in Canada who have trained internationally, uh, we need to increase, uh, the rate of them being able to get, uh, you know, their credentials recognized, regulated, uh, and making sure that if they have the knowledge, uh, uh, then we can, uh, you know, find a place for them to, uh, to work appropriately, uh, in, in this country.

Wouldn't that be a solution instead of arguing with the government about it?