[rfrey]

There's a shortage of primary care, family doctors in Canada, but that's a systemic issue resulting from a skewed payment system that undervalues family medicine. The result is some difficulty getting a family doctor after you leave home as many practices are fully booked with patients and there aren't as many young physicians entering family medicine as we need.

The outcome is having to go to a walk-in clinic or (worst case) the ER room if you need care and don't have a doctor. That's inconvenient because of having to sit in the waiting room for a few hours.

In Alberta there is a genuine issue with doctors leaving the province (mostly for other provinces, not the country entirely), but that is the direct result of the conservative government there waging war on the public medical system in an effort to build support for a private system.

The only place I hear about the terrible medical care situation in Canada is in the American far-right press and some of their Canadian surrogates (e.g. Rebel News in Alberta).