Nice goal, but do the public make the connection?

Fairness Works sign, Broadway City Centre SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

Fairness Works sign, Broadway City Centre SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC (Detail)

In 2014 the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) produced what I an only imagine is a pre-election campaign to raise awareness about a number of issues that it deems important to Canadians. These fall into five broad areas; Retirement Security, Good Jobs, Child Care, Health Care, and Human Rights.

Around Vancouver the campaign's signs were up on transit shelters and in SkyTrain stations. The sign above was on the wall at the Broadway City Centre SkyTrain station. The background to the sign is a made up on bandages, which most people would connect with health care at one level or another. The theme of this sign, "4 million Canadian don't have a family doctor. Is that fair?" is addressed on the CLC website.

"That's why we're advocating for a national strategy to recruit, train and retain more doctors and other healthcare workers in our public system." (Source: http://fairnessworks.ca/healthcare)

Advocating for a strategy is not really action. It is a plan to make a plan. And why is there a shortage of doctors? Some observers have said that part of the reason is because the various medical associations across Canada make it very difficult for immigrant doctors to be accepted to practice in Canada. And the communities that are underserved by doctors tend not to be the ones that new doctors want to live in. (Often rural, northern, and/or remote.)

So, while making sure that everyone has a family doctor is a noble goal, is that really something that the CLC can do anything about? Does the public think that the CLC can have any effect on a shortage of doctors? I suspect probably not.