Jennifer Clara Tang*

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Candidate statement

My name is Jennifer Clara Tang, and I am an emergency physician, medical educator, investigating Coroner and presiding officer for Inquests in the province of Ontario. I am privileged to work at Hamilton Health Sciences, serve the greater community of Hamilton, Brantford and Six Nations, and teach residents and medical students at McMaster University. I identify as a woman of colour, an early career physician in her first 10 years of practice, a mother of a young toddler and a wife of a family and palliative care physician. I was elected to CMPA Council in 2019 and am seeking your support to continue my work: to protect the professional integrity of physicians and promote safe medical care in Canada.

During my tenure as Councillor, I served on the Case Review Committee and the Extent of Assistance Committee. I brought my experience as a frontline colleague to every meeting, because as an emergency physician and Coroner, I have walked in your shoes. I know what it is like to make difficult clinical decisions, work unsociable hours, face a busy waiting room, do home visits, return to work after parental leave, wrangle a sick toddler during a teleconference and interact with different provincial organizations. During this pandemic where misinformation has been proven to be deadly, I promote and support physicians as health advocates. I am active on social media, and as such, I understand the challenges and pitfalls our members face. I am conscious that the CMPA must be agile and responsive to emerging issues like virtual care. I believe that our organizations can change to reflect our realities. For example, last year, a colleague and I successfully lobbied the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to introduce parental leave fee registration fee reductions.

The CMPA needs governance and experience that reflects its membership. I believe I will continue to bring much needed diversity and modern perspective to Council. The last two years of pandemic have taken a toll on the profession. As a frontline emergency physician and vaccinator who has been active in health advocacy, I have experienced and understand the medicolegal challenges faced by the profession. I have unique expertise in bioethics (Masters of Health Sciences (Bioethics)) and a legal lens from my work with Coroner's Inquests. If re-elected onto Council, I commit to bringing my skills and experience to ensure responsible governance of the CMPA.