Licensure: competence to do what?

programs were meant to be specific to Ontario. I am pleased that graduates of the Family Practice Residency Program at St. Boniface General Hospital would be ready to practise comfortably anywhere, even Manitowaning. I find the residency programs described by Ross and Whiteside particularly commendable, as they clearly recognize the existence of special needs for rural practice and have taken steps to meet them. What are the Ontario programs doing? How many make an attempt to increase community-based learning? Although Biehn and Dawson offer much criticism of my views, they present no evidence that their respective programs address the issue, as Ross and Whiteside's have. Dawson and Whiteside have inquired about my willingness to accept trainees. The last clinical clerk left Manitoulin Island last week; the next is assigned to me in a month. I'd be delighted to host a resident, but this has proven difficult, largely because of the limited time allowed for community learning and other restrictions imposed by the residency programs. I called the McMaster program last year and offered to take residents but was told that I had "insufficient community experience". Their program requires that community preceptors have 5 years' experience, although supervisors in their family practice units are sometimes hired straight out of residency programs, without community experience. Finally, any trainee working with me will be advised to be very cautious when dealing with the press, even CMAJ.