Advocating for the restoration of federal funding and helping to ensure the new Ministry of Public Health is established are top priorities the CMA's new President, Dr. Albert Schumacher.
The 45-year-old family physician from Windsor, Ont. also wants to make sure the new position of Chief Medical Officer of Health is “unfettered” by political influence, and that a federal immunization program is set up.
Schumacher, who was President of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) in 2001–02, also intends to advocate strongly on environmental issues. “It is critical that the CMA demonstrate leadership on international issues such as smog, air and water quality, and tobacco control, that will bring about both short- and long-term measurable impacts on the health and wellness of Canadians.”
Schumacher, who becomes the CMA's 133rd president on Aug. 18 (CMAJ 2003;169[6]:594), first came into the public eye during Ontario's 1986 physician strike when he led protests that garnered national headlines.
Subsequent to the strike, “there was a great awakening among the medical profession as to the necessity of exerting credible influence on the political process,” said Schumacher.
He became a council member of the OMA Board of Directors and was recruited into its new Public Affairs Committee. He also guided the development of the OMA Political Action Committee and government relations program.
In the face of rising tuition, Schumacher led the establishment of the Ontario Medical Student Bursary Fund so that “no qualified student would ever have to say ‘I was acccepted but could not afford to attend medical school in Ontario.’”
More recently, he sat on Ontario's Source Water Protection Expert Advisory Group, set up in the wake of the Walkerton tragedy, and testified at the Walkerton inquiry.
At the CMA, Schumacher has been a council member since 1989, a member of the Political Action Committee (1992–1999) and a board member since 1998.
Advocacy, however, is only the means to an end — Schumacher says his foremost desire is to improve medicine. “We have been starved in resources … . We've made some changes to become competitive with the rest of the world, but we've only just turned the corner.”
Despite the demands of the year ahead, Schumacher intends to keep his solo practice going. He is married with 3 children. — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ