Sparse promises and meager medical representation.

ably yield a ragtag crew of Parliamentarians, as people who were offered up as cannon fodder are unexpectedly swept into office. The 2011 federal election proved no exception as political pundits were left mulling the incongruities and merits of an extremely diverse demographic mix of Members of Parliament (MPs). There were, for example, a record seven university students elected to office (including four undergraduates, one of whom is a teenager, two master’s students and a doctoral candidate). That was more than the number of selfdescribed “professors” (3). There were also a few musicians, an actor, a gardener, a bartender and a museum tour guide elected as MPs as 61.4% of eligible Canadian voters trekked to the polls and delivered a majority 167 seats to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives (up 24 from the 143 held at dissolution of Parliament). In a seismic May 2 political shift, voters also delivered 102 seats (up 66) to the New Democrats and made Jack Layton the nation’s Official Opposition leader. Decimated were the Liberals, who notched 34 seats (down 43), prompting the resignation of unpopular leader Michael Ignatieff. All but blasted out of the political waters was the Bloc Québécois, who fell to 4 seats from 47, prompting the unceremonious departure of leader Gilles Duceppe. Voters also delivered a historic first seat to the Green Party by electing party leader Elizabeth May in the British Columbia riding of Saanich–Gulf Islands. (There were two independents and three vacancies when Parliament dissolved). Although health care consistently topped Canadian concerns in campaign polls, it appeared to have little impact on balloting and the medical community will again be sparsely represented within Parliament. But one physician, newly elected Dr. Kellie Leitch, is widely believed to be on a fast-track to Cabinet after capturing the Ontario riding of Simcoe–Grey, once held by Tory Helena Guergis, who was turfed from Cabinet in 2010 and forced by Harper to resign from caucus over criminal allegations that have since been completely discredited. Leitch is an orthopaedic pediatric surgeon at SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Ontario and an associate professor at the University of Toronto. She was formerly the chair of pediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario in London, assistant dean at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and codirector of the Health Sector MBA (Master of Business Administration) program at the Ivey School of Business. Her federal and provincial Conservative political ties are extensive. She was once the federal advisor on healthy children and youth, and served as chair of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s Expert Panel for the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit. As founder of the Kids Health Foundation, she is credited with having played a major role in the government’s 2010 throne speech commitment to develop a national strategy on childhood injury prevention. Beyond Leitch, physician representation in the new Parliament will be light, although the Liberals managed to reelect general practitioners Dr. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s) and Dr. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre). A doctor from Algeria, Djaouida Sellah, was elected as a New Democrat in the Quebec riding of Saint-Bruno– Saint-Hubert. Sellah says on her campaign website that she has been a doctor for more than 10 years and was a founding member and current president of the Association of Quebec Doctors Graduated outside Canada and the United States. Nine other physicians who sought office, though, saw their political aspirations scuttled. They were: • Incumbent Dr. Bernard Patry, general practitioner, Liberal, (Pierrefonds– Dollard) • Dr. John R. Hamilton, ophthalmologist, Liberal (Central Nova) • Dr. Stan Kutcher, psychiatrist, Liberal (Halifax) • Dr. Chris Milburn, general practitioner, Green Party (West Nova) • Dr. Bruce Robert Petty, ophthalmologist, Conservative (Halifax West) News CMAJ