Canada’s top doctor Dr. Theresa Tam steps down amid alarming health crises

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer since June 2017, will be stepping down from her post on June 20, 2025, marking the end of an eight-year tenure that spanned some of the most challenging public health crises of recent memory.

A pediatric infectious diseases physician by training, Dr. Tam first joined Canada’s federal public health ranks in 1998, not long after measles was officially eliminated from the country. Now, she returns to that same battlefield, observing with concern the virus’s unsettling reappearance, but expresses optimism: “I’m confident Canada can stop domestic transmission once again through immunization,” she told reporters.

Dr Tam’s journey

Tam’s career has been threaded through Canada’s major public health emergencies. From SARS in 2003 when she served in the Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division to H1N1, Ebola, MERS, and the COVID‑19 pandemic, Tam has been both a frontline thinker and a crisis communicator.

Her leadership during COVID‑19 was marked by daily press briefings, science-led messaging, and calm reassurance, which made her a national figure.

During a candid interview, Tam reflected on the unrelenting pressure of the pandemic: over 60,000 lives lost; polarized public debates; but also profound displays of communal solidarity. “Mentally, it was very stressful,” she said, highlighting how provincial partners and her personal support systems helped her endure.

Her personal life and love for music

Behind the official role lies a multifaceted individual. Tam, who plays piano, violin, cello even trumpet, saw parallels between conducting an orchestra and steering an emergency response. “I translated a lot of my musical thinking into conducting an emergency,” she told CTV and CityNews.

With no job lined up post-June 20, Tam plans to step back and regroup with family, lace up for long‑distance runs, and reconnect with her music. “At some point in my career, I’ve dropped a whole bunch of them,” she said, referring to her musical passion.

In recent years, she’s championed issues underscored in her 2022 annual report, including climate change, health equity, Indigenous leadership in public health, and vaccination strategy for the next decade.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has begun recruiting her successor.