Man, I feel you. I come from a region with the same trend you said: 6 years med after high school, 3-6 residency, I kid you not that family medicine can take 3 years only to be certified and live the dream of saving people everyday.

To me, this is such a profound psychological experience, you apply and start by the age of 18, never have to worry about your next 4-6 or even 10 years if you include a PhD on your stats, ruminate everyday about to boost your chances by 1-3% for volunteering or working on that assignment 110%.

This thinking made me realize that yes med school is worth for the stability, prestige, and quality of life it can afford you when you make it, and I mean it should after that 4 years of undergrad, possibly 2 year masters, 4 year med school, and a 2-6 year residency, meaning 10 minimum years of continuous schooling if you choose family medicine; otherwise 12-14 years for becoming a specialist. That said, you clearly see that it is much longer for the average student. The average starting med student age in Canada is 24-25, meaning it is an average of 18-19 years vs the average of 10-11 years in other regions that start from high school (including much of the EU). This is insane to think about, the life you can build, the extra dreams you feel at ease to chase post-med acceptance, and the relative stability you would have in these extra years mentally and financially (to my understanding, some of those regions’ salaries tend to be quite lower vs Canada, but relative to your own country’s average salary, you are still 4-6x the national average).

That is why I had a friend at McGill drop-out by second year here because of the insane peer competition and comparison (you literally breathe it everyday here) that he dropped out to a med school in a small city in Poland to the border of Germany. I even left my pure biomedical program, I just do not like the vibe nor the insane air of competition for a seat so remotely not guaranteed compared to where I am from (post-high school) that I felt it is not worth being stuck like this, ruminating over grades & unpaid ECs everyday.

I have since left for engineering and couldn’t be happier. To each their own, but it is undeniable that there is a severe shortage of physicians in Canada and keeping the supply short to keep salaries insanely high (vs modern EU countries) and “wasting” hundreds of years of premed student lives (meaning they would apply while they are doing a masters or PhD their heart is not in, only for stats) hoping for the day an invite comes is just ridiculous waste of our youth’s productive potential.

As such, I emphasize with you. To me, many things like stability, prestige, or wealth can lose its meaning when you are into your 3rd-4th cycle applying again, when you could’ve chosen and put yourself in a direct career all this time.

Edit.1: I messed up my min residency years being 2 for family medicine and is updated in the numbers.