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Maritime ties stronger than bright city lights

Linda Maxwell could have set up her practice as an ear, nose and throat specialist anywhere. The medical communities in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal would have embraced her, in Boston and New York they would have welcomed her, too.

But on this grey winter afternoon, she is sitting behind a desk in the office she recently opened in Saint John, a biology degree from Harvard on the wall behind her, a medical degree from Yale on the wall to her right, a diploma from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in front of her.

She could be anywhere, yes, but for Linda Maxwell anywhere isn't home.

New Brunswick is.

"I was looking all over Canada and the U.S., and there were lots of opportunities," said Maxwell, who recently joined the staff of the Saint John Regional Hospital as an otolaryngologist. "And while coming back to New Brunswick was always in the back of my mind, I really hadn't been thinking much about it.

"But then, at the same time as I was looking, there was an opening here, and it didn't take much coaxing to convince me. It is nice not only to be in a place where there is a need, but it is especially nice to be home.

"Now, my dream is to get the others back here."

The "others", in this case, are her four sisters, all raised in tiny Beresford on the province's north shore, each a Harvard graduate. Together, the Maxwell sisters make up the only five siblings to ever graduate from Harvard, whose roots trace to 1638.

Now, the other four - a doctor, two lawyers and a law student - are all in Toronto, which Linda Maxwell just abandoned in favour of Saint John. She returned to New Brunswick in October after spending five years training as a surgical resident and one year in post-graduate studies under Dr. David Ellis, one of the pioneers of facial plastic surgery in North America.

"It has been a very hard thing for me, being away from my four sisters," Maxwell said. "But in the end, I decided I was ready to take a risk and come here.

"It's a risk, but a good risk."

Maxwell was certified as a Fellow of Canada's Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons on June 30, and accepted the position in Saint John shortly thereafter. Since Oct. 10 she has seen patients at the hospital and at her office in the 10,000-square-foot complex that fellow physician Andrea Garland opened on Magazine Street in March of 2005. Maxwell's range of specialties include everything from pediatrics to cancer and cosmetic surgery.

"People here have been very generous to me," Maxwell said. "They have opened their arms up to me and made the transition easy for me. I don't regret coming even for a second."

At a time when the Atlantic Regional Health Sciences Corporation has been struggling to both recruit and maintain doctors, the hiring of a physician as young and as skilled as Maxwell, and away from much bigger markets on top of that, may be an indication that the tide is beginning to change.

While she was eager to return to New Brunswick, she also said the corporation did an extraordinary job in recruiting her and making an offer she couldn't refuse.

"I thought about going out West, or to the U.S., but I ended up joining a growing number of people who are looking for a position outside [major centres]," Maxwell said. "More and more, people are discovering there is life outside cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and I think we are seeing a shift at the way people look at Atlantic Canada.

"There may be places with more bells and whistles, but I like the lifestyle here, I like the people and I feel very appreciated. I believe Saint John is one of the up-and-coming places."

Born in Winnipeg, Maxwell moved to Beresford at age five when her late father, a doctor from Ghana, accepted a position at the regional hospital in Bathurst.

Her mother, Irene, is a former registered nurse who met her husband when both were working in Montreal.

Irene Maxwell, who is originally from Newcastle, still lives in Beresford and helped Linda set up her office in Saint John. The building in the shadows of Fort Howe has a splendid view of Saint John's inner harbour.

"I'm able to look out and see the water whenever I want," Maxwell said. "Nothing is perfect, but this is pretty darn good."

Maxwell said she hopes other doctors looking to relocate will see what she has done and consider coming to New Brunswick.

"Maybe my coming here will inspire others," she said.

"I didn't come here to prove a point or anything like that, but maybe it will help to get the ball rolling. There is a lot to be offered here.

"I feel very lucky to have been able to come back home.

"My earliest memories have always been of Beresford, so to call anyplace else home would be weird for me. It's nice to come to a place where I feel part of the group.

"Even though Toronto is so cosmopolitan, I never quite felt that I fit in. I never felt it was truly my home."