Advocacy and Policy

Advocacy is listed as core physician competencies in CanMEDS, but most of us were never actually taught how to do it. This is not about becoming a full-time activist. It can be as local as raising a concern about a process in your own department, or as broad as shaping provincial policy. It is about knowing what to do the next time something isn't working and you want to change it: how to write something people will actually read, how to handle a media interview without your point getting flattened into a soundbite, how to understand the policy levers that shape our institutions, and how to figure out whether an issue belongs with your department, your professional association, or somewhere else entirely.

The resources below are organized by skill so you can go straight to what's useful to you right now, whether that's drafting your first op-ed, prepping for an interview, understanding a policy process, or knowing your medico-legal footing before speaking publicly.