Trans Care in Canada?

[Sol]

So from the crap show in the US and my very unpatriotic butt, I've devised a plan to get my sibling, two friends, and myself to Canada through college. 

With that being said, are any standards of care different between the US and Canada? Or are they roughly the same?

[WillowA113]

Canada seems like a great country. Id like to live there if the US starts getting even worse.
The only problem is that my bf wants to live in the USA. Im pretty sure its because of all those movies that make it unrealistically seem like America is the place where dreams come true. Im sure I can convince him but luckily its not at that point in this country yet. 

[KathyLauren]

Canada is (for now) a great place to be trans.  The people are (for the most part) accepting and/or supportive.  Medical care for citizens and permanent residents is free or cheap (depending which province you live in) and GCS is covered in all jurisdictions.

 

If you are here on a student visa, I don't know what your medical status would be.  I think you would be responsible for your own medical care, but that is something you should check on. 

 

Waiting lists are bad.  Here in Nova Scotia, for example, there are 100,000 people waiting to get a family doctor, out of a population of 1,000,000.  Wait lists for specialists are long.  More than once, I have gotten a call from a specialist, saying I have an appointment to see Dr. X, and I have to ask, "Who is Dr. X, and what am I seeing her for?" because the referral was so long ago that I had totally forgotten about it.

 

Standards of trans care here are pretty much WPATH.  There is not much informed consent, though some providers cut corners to make WPATH work a lot like informed consent.  There is one clinic that serves the whole of Canada for GCS surgeries, plus one that serves only Ontario, and another that serves only BC.  That's it!

 

Now, about those qualifiers I put in parentheses in the first paragraph...  The Canadian people are fairly liberal, but the main political opposition party has gone totally trumpist over the last ten years.  That means we are one election away from the far-right madness happening here.  I would like to think that the Canadian people wouldn't stand for it for very long, but that party was in power for 10 years a while back, when they weren't quite as nuts.  There's no telling what could happen if they get back in.

 

But, for now, Canada is rated #1 out of 200 countries in the world for safety of LGBTQ+ people.  So we are probably as good as it gets.

[KathyLauren]

For anyone contemplating a move to Canada, here is a place to start researching the legalities: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html

[Sol]

Thanks @KathyLauren! 

I do need to do some research about my medical status, and I have been looking near the Ontario or Toronto areas for now, but I haven't pinned down a location just yet. 

The waiting lists honestly sound like my OBGYN and psychologist here, and I did hear about that. I can see it being workable, so I hope/think that won't be too much of an issue. 

As for the political party, I think there's a better chance they might not be back in power if most people are put off my the craziness or are more liberal. But that's me and my own logic talking, and it is a very valid concern.

And thank you for linking the site! I found that when I first started planning in May, but I lost it in my mountain of chrome tabs.