A small-town physician will head the advocacy organization for B.C. doctors.

Dr. Trina Larsen Soles was elected as president of Doctors of B.C. after four weeks of balloting that wound up on Sunday (May 15).

She's been practising in Golden for 29 years.

"I support publicly funded health care and equitable access for all Canadians," Soles wrote on her website. "Physicians must be involved at every level in fixing what is broken and challenging our health authorities and Ministry of Health to help us provide efficient and effective quality of care for our patients."

She added that she "will not back down from confronation if necessary, but I believe we are better and stronger working together within our profession to leverage effective change".

Dr. Larsen Soles was running against orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Day, who's long advocated for a parallel private health-care system. 

Dr. Day created the privately owned Cambie Surgery Centre. He launched a lawsuit several years ago against the B.C. government over restrictions imposed on patients from buying health-care services from the private sector.

Dr. Day also lost last year's Doctors of B.C. election to Dr. Alan Ruddiman following a run-off vote. That came after the two physicians ended up in a tie after the first round of balloting.

This year, Dr. Day insisted that the election was not about "public-private" health care.

Rather, he stated that it was about "choosing a leader who has the experience, the energy, and the optimism to serve all physicians and patients, as we seek solutions to the challenges in health care funding, access and delivery".

Dr. Larsen Soles works with a group of 13 physicians and her husband runs a cafe at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, as well as other family businesses.