Dr. Arleigh Trainor says the main reasons for her impending move from the U.S. back to Manitoba are family, a career opportunity and a chance to practise medicine in Canada’s universal health-care system.
But the Manitoba-born emergency physician acknowledged “instability” following the change in U.S. government last November played a small role in her decision too.
She’s accepted a position to work in the emergency department in the southwestern Manitoba city of Brandon starting in February 2026.
“I am incredibly excited about it — number 1 to be coming home,” Trainor told CBC in a Zoom interview from Sioux Falls, S.D., where she currently works as an emergency physician.
She’s one of six American doctors recently hired by Manitoba health officials as they ramp up recruitment efforts in the U.S. amid funding cuts and uncertainty under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Trainor says she’s “a huge proponent of socialized medicine,” and sees Canada as a place where patients can get “wonderful care … [that] doesn’t bankrupt you.”
She said she’s looking forward to working in a system that prioritizes preventative care, adding she believes it’s important that vulnerable populations can access treatment.
Trainor also said investments in improving health care, medical research and education are a big draw.
Recruiters should be advertising “how much effort is being put by the province to put medicine at the forefront for the population of Manitoba, because all doctors want to help people,” she said.
Trainor, who has worked in the United States for the past 25 years, also thinks the relative stability of the Canadian system could be a big selling feature to other U.S. providers who may be considering a change.
“Doctors abhor instability. It’s hard enough being an emergency medicine physician, because our kind of baseline is working within chaos,” Trainor said.
“We want stability. We want to know what the rules are, what the regulations are and how we can have ease of treating our patients.”
While she has yet to encounter a specific example of Trump administration policies affecting her work as an emergency physician, Trainor questioned whether that might change if she stayed.
“There’s a lot of changes going on right now,” Trainor said.
Other health-care providers in the U.S. are seeing opportunities north of the border, she said.
“I love that the brain drain is going the other way and that we’re hearing how wonderful the Canadian system is.”
Licensing requirements eased
Dr. Ainslie Mihalchuk, the registrar and CEO of the College and Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, said changes this past March have made the transition easier for U.S. doctors coming into the province.
U.S.-trained and certified physicians can get a full licence to practise in Manitoba without completing Canadian certification exams and don’t need to work under a supervisor, Mihalchuk said.
“We want people to practise in Manitoba who are safe to care for Manitobans,” she said. “But we also have to recognize that the training in the United States is on par with the training in Canada.”
During each of the past five years, Manitoba has seen zero to three U.S. physicians come to work in the province, according to the college’s latest annual report.
Since Trump was elected, Manitoba has registered 10 U.S. physicians, and eight additional doctors have open applications.
Jeremy de Jong, the college’s director of registration, said that’s a significant increase.
There’s anecdotal evidence it’s partly because of the political climate in the U.S., “particularly around women’s health,” de Jong said.
“We’ve heard some feedback about people wanting to deliver that sort of care, and that they can do it in alignment with their ethical commitments [in Canada].”
Doc originally from Iowa working to recruit others
Dr. Alison Carleton, a family physician in Winnipegosis, Man., who emigrated from Iowa in 2017, has been involved in a recruitment campaign to bring other U.S. physicians to the province.
She came with her wife for financial and personal reasons shortly after Trump was elected for the first time in 2016, she said.
“We are fully Canadian.… I have family down in the States now, and they understand it’s not safe for me to be down there as a gay woman,” Carleton told host Marcy Markusa in an interview with CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio.
Carleton said to recruit more U.S. doctors, Manitoba must let them know they’re needed and wanted.
“When we first started looking, we were like, ‘OK, I’ll do whatever I need to for them to take me,” but “it came down more to what did I want,” Carleton said.
“I think that if we could get that message out there, that they would flock up here.”
That wouldn’t surprise Trainor.
“I fully expect to see even more nurses and physicians coming into Canada,” said Trainor, who accepted her position in Brandon after finding out about the opportunity at an emergency medicine conference in Montreal this past May.
“It’s actually a promotion in some ways,” she said.
“I’m going to be working in academics as well as in clinical work, and that was the big draw, as well as coming to friends and family — which you can’t replace.”
Manitoba is on track to inject a significant number of doctors from the United States into the province’s health-care system. Recruiters have been tapping into the market because of the political climate south of the border.
