Tink, you cite the Fraser Institute: "Adding to Canada's medical
problems is the exodus of doctors. According to a March 2003 story in
Canada News, about 10,000 doctors left Canada in the 1990s. Compounding
that exodus is the drop in medical school graduates."

I'll not repeat what I've already said about the Fraser Institute. But
let's deal with the "exodus" of doctors. That's a dramatic turn of
phrase. Shall we say that, notwithstanding the protestations of Scott
and rick, since this is a free country, physicians come and go. Some do
leave. So what? What is more important is the overall change in the
population of doctors. There are dozens of doctors in my neighborhood:
mostly Canadian trained but also many from South Africa and Ireland.
So, unless the Fraser Institute is willing to tell us the rate of
change in the entire population of doctors, "exodus" is just so much
editorializing.

I'd also like to see the magnitude of the apparent "drop in medical
school graduates." There ARE WAITING LISTS to get into Canada's
medical schools, so the drop in graduates can't be due to lack of
applicants. To the best of my knowledge, no Canadian university has
dropped its medical school (although a few newer universities have
gotten into medical education), so I can't see the apparent reduced
number of graduates being a function of fewer schools. Could it be that
some universities have reduced the number of seats available? Could be,
I don't know. But that's hardly going to be significant. So, perhaps,
this apparent "drop in medical school graduates." amounts to 5, 6,
maybe 10 graduates. Unless the Fraser Institute tells us, we'll never
know.

Tink, whatever happened to reading with a critical eye?

frtzw906