(Please forward to colleagues interested in practicing in Canada)
Canada’s flag has been modified to show love for medical professionals during Covid-19
Canada Day
If you were in Canada now, you would be preparing for the July 1 national holiday called Canada Day. In a “normal” year we would all be celebrating with picnics, fireworks displays, and parades. This year it is anybody’s guess what Canadians will be doing.
World famous Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island
British Columbia’s Butchart Gardens
In our case we will be going for a walking tour of Butchart Gardens with friends. Butchart Gardens is 135 acres (54 hectares) in size and is located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is on the register of the National Historical Sites of Canada. It was created in 1904 and now sees over one million visitors a year. Of note, the Blue Poppy Restaurant is named after the Tibetan Blue Poppy which Butchart Gardens received, in the form of seeds, as a gift from Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden in 1923.
It is an incredible opportunity to enjoy rare flora in a beautiful waterfront setting in British Columbia. I hope everyone has an opportunity to visit someday.
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Near Niagara Falls, Ontario
Ontario’s Royal Botanical Gardens
If you live in Ontario, then you might visit Royal Botanical Gardens on July 1. Royal Botanical Gardens is located at the western tip of Lake Ontario. Five distinct formal gardens are contained with 1,100 hectares of nature reserve, nestled into the slopes of Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. Explore and enjoy the many historical outdoor plant collections, the indoor Mediterranean Garden, and 27 km of nature trails.
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Photo credit: Kelly Ann Schneider Nothing better than a patio overlooking a harbour
It's Patio Season!!
It’s Patio Season!! Up and down both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts Canadians are going outside onto patios to enjoy a beverage and some snacks, following social distancing of course. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, 151,000 miles, most of which is quite rugged and isolated. However, small towns and villages, suburban and urban areas along the coast, will be lined with Canadians enjoying the sun and overlooking harbours filled with boats of all sizes.
Canadians who live along the coast have spectacular boating options. Whether you like fishing, kayaking, canoeing, tubing, stand-up paddle boarding, sailing or yachting, there is something for everyone to enjoy about summer. Many locations offer lessons to enthusiasts of every age.
This year, on the longest day of summer, June 21, “patio people” were viewing incredible sunsets until 10 pm.
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This Month’s Geography Lesson
Canada has ten provinces and three northern territories.
We say that Canada borders three oceans – the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Arctic Ocean on the north.
The topography is very different across Canada. Canada has 150 mountains of 2200 meters (7421 feet) or higher.
We also have the Okanagan desert, a semi-arid area of British Columbia, known as The Napa Valley of Canada for its many wineries.
The Prairie Provinces are a vast stretch of land between British Columbia and Ontario comprising an area known as the Canadian Prairies, a 2,000 km valley of plains, forests, and farmland.
In Ontario, despite the absence of any mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands. There are an amazing 250,000 lakes in Ontario and 99,000 km ( 62,000 miles) of rivers.
The Maritimes is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (PEI). If you include the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, then the area in known as Atlantic Canada. The Maritimes, as its name suggests, has a topography of harbours and ports and is largely known for its fishing industry, especially Canadian lobster.
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PhysiciansApply.ca
If you are serious about practicing medicine in Canada the first thing you should do is open an account with PhysiciansApply.ca. It is an online portal operated under the auspices of the Medical Council of Canada (similar to the GMC in the UK). Every doctor coming to Canada must have an account. This is where your credentials must be verified. These credentials include your passport, medical degrees and more. Every province and territory of Canada has a regulatory authority to handle physician licensing and these authorities (Colleges) will need to access your PhysiciansApply.ca account before you can be licensed in Canada.
Don’t wait! Some documents can be verified quickly, and others may take some time, especially if you attended medical school in a country that is slow to respond to inquiries from Canada.
If you are an IMG, licensing in Canada as a physician simply does not happen without a PhysiciansApply.ca account.
We like questions!
It’s likely that you will have questions along your journey to practicing in Canada. Don’t hesitate to contact John Livingstone at: [email protected]
