Do we like Theresa Tam?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a decent one on character, marked down only because the record I could read in full is thin.
Theresa Tam is a paediatric infectious diseases doctor who spent decades inside the federal public health system. She has been with the federal public health team since 1998, and she was Canada's chief public health officer from June 2017 until her term ended on 20 June 2025. For most Canadians she became a household name during COVID, as the calm voice at the daily briefings.
Nothing new on her lately. Her term ended in mid-2025, she said she had no next job lined up, and she is now out of the hot seat. Her successor, Joss Reimer, has since taken the role, so there's no fresh stoush to report.
The nastiest chapter was in April 2020. Conservative MP Derek Sloan, then a party leadership candidate, posted a video asking “Does she work for Canada or for China?” and later demanded she be fired. Critics, including NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, called that fuel for racism, while Sloan said he was targeting her decisions, not her personally.
Tam's response was about as unflappable as it gets. She said her “singular focus” was getting the epidemic wave under control, and that she didn't let noise distract her. That's the abuse aimed at her, and she kept doing the job rather than feeding the fight.
On the harm check, I found no words or acts of hers that go after LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet. Her job was defending vaccination and public health, so what she stood behind is the opposite of the anti-vax slide. I did not find any reporting I could open in full that ties her to dodgy company. Her pandemic calls are argued over by critics, but that's a policy debate, not harm.
The good stuff is a long public-service career and a formal thank-you. In 2025 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, with a citation describing her tenure as characterised by her commitment to health equity and her leadership through COVID.