I GOT INTO FAMILY MEDICINE in a roundabout way. In my 20s, I did my graduate studies in philosophy in the United States. After that, I spent nine years working in management and software consulting, which had me on the road nearly 50 weeks of the year. In 2002, my husband accepted a teaching position at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, so we decided to move to nearby South Frontenac township. At that point, I was 39 years old and had grown disenchanted with my career. I wanted to travel less and make a difference in my community. Even back then, I was reading stories about a shortage of family doctors, so in 2009, I enrolled in Queen's School of Medicine.
I was the only first-year student with kids: ours were five and one, and our third came along during my second year. Motherhood forced me to become really good at time management. For four years, I diligently chipped away at my assignments, forgoing parties and social events in favour of time with my young family. After another two years of residency, I completed my studies in 2015. The year after I graduated, I was recruited by a clinic in Verona, a 2,000-person town a half-hour's drive north of Kingston. I was replacing an older woman who was retiring. Despite being one of just two family doctors on staff, each caring for 1,200 patients, it sounded like a dream job. Early on, it was.
Verona is a tight-knit community. Soon after I arrived there, patients began approaching me in public places, like the grocery store, stopping to say hello and, sometimes, asking me about X-ray results.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May/June 2023-Ausgabe von Maclean's.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May/June 2023-Ausgabe von Maclean's.
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"I escaped Gaza and sent my family to Egypt. Now, my goal is to reunite with them in Canada."
Bombs destroyed my neighbourhood and killed my loved ones. I hope my family and I can find refuge in Quebec.
TIDAL WAVE
Susan Lapides chronicles her family's summers in a tiny New Brunswick fishing town
THE NORTHERN FRONT
In Ontario's hinterlands, a battle is brewing between First Nations, prospectors and the provincial government over a multi-billion-dollar motherlode of metals. Inside the fight for the Ring of Fire.
THE CULTURE WAR IN THE CLASSROOM
Several provincial governments now mandate parental consent for kids to change pronouns in Schools. Who gets to decide a child's gender?
THE JACKPOT GENERATION
Canada is in the midst of the greatest wealth transfer of all time, as some $1 trillion passes from boomers to their millennial kids. How an inheritance-based economy will transform the country.
My Child-Free Choice
For a long time, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to become a parent. The climate crisis clinched my decision.
The Main Event
Calgary's massive, modern, newly expanded BMO Centre is open for business
Embrace the Four-Day Workweek
Canada is facing a national productivity crisis. One counterintuitive solution? Give workers more time off.
Richard Ireland, mayor of Jasper, is ready to rebuild
IT'S TEMPTING TO LEAN on numbers when conveying the scale of the damage wrought by July's fire in Jasper, Albertathe worst in the national park's 117-year history. Water bombers were grounded in the face of 400-foot-high flames. More than 25,000 visitors and residents were evacuated as hundreds of firefighters flew in to assist. Damages exceeded $700 million. A third of the town's structures were consumed-historical buildings, tourist haunts and family homes. One of them belonged to Richard Ireland.
"The Taliban tried to kill me at 16.Eight years later, I am free in Canada."
I ATTENDED A PRIVATE ENGLISH SCHOOL in the Jaghori District of Ghazni province, Afghanistan.