A Life in Motion: In Conversation with Dr. Tom DeMarco
My interview with Dr. Tom DeMarco on The Blue Hour is now available as a podcast.
This was one of those conversations that unfolded naturally — not as a formal interview, but as a beautiful and generous talk about a life lived with curiosity, discipline, and a commitment to practice.
CiTR 101.9 FM / The Blue Hour
Recorded live on June 16, 2026
You can listen to the episode on CiTR.
The Blue Hour, hosted by Farha Guerrero, airs live every Tuesday at 2 p.m. PST, on CiTR 101.9 FM in Vancouver and citr.ca.
Dr. DeMarco is a family physician in Whistler, but our conversation moved far beyond medicine. We spoke about rural health, the intimacy of family practice, decades of work in Canadian communities, and the strange privilege of knowing people across the span of their lives — people who, with time, become almost like family. We also spoke about cycling, travel, birds, flora and fauna, language, aging, and the philosophy that can emerge from attending to patients, landscapes, the body, and time.
What stayed with me was the wisdom he offered without ever sounding like he was trying to be wise. This is a conversation about medicine, but also about how to live: how to remain curious and adventurous, how to keep moving, how to listen and see carefully, and how a life can become meaningful through ordinary acts of care.
Transcript
Farha: Today’s guest on The Blue Hou is Dr. Tom DeMarco, a family physician in Whistler, British Columbia.
Dr. Tom DeMarco, graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1983 and completed a rotating internship at McGill University in 1984. And then, from 1984 to 1996, he worked in family practice and emergency medicine in more than 50 rural and remote communities across Canada, including northern and Arctic communities.
And since 1996, he has practiced full-time in Whistler and also holds a clinical teaching appointment here at the University of British Columbia.
His professional interests, though, go beyond family medicine. He has expertise in dermatology, contraception, and minor surgery. And he speaks more languages than I do, I’m afraid. He speaks English, of course, French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
And outside of medicine, Dr. DeMarco is an avid cyclist, but we’re going to learn that that means much more. He’s a traveler, a birdwatcher, and a writer, and he has traveled in his lifetime, thus far to more than 85 countries with his bicycle and binoculars.
And in 2023, he reached a lifetime cycling milestone of 400,000 kilometres. However, that number is now closer to 430,000 kilometres. And this was from a letter that was published also about this great feat in the British Columbia Medical Journal.
And so, roughly about 10,000 kilometres annually for more than two decades, 23 years, but in a row, consecutively.
So today we have a lot to talk about. We want to reflect not only on his extraordinary love of family practice — I remember reading one article or interview of his where he even likened it to a hobby. And he enjoys medicine as ever, still does, and hopes to continue serving his patients for many years to come.
So, Dr. Tom DeMarco, just as I suspected, you are in full bike attire, your bicycle is just sitting outside the studio, and you are here with us to talk about you and all of your wonderful passions. So welcome to The Blue Hour.
Dr. DeMarco: Thank you, Farha.
Farha: So, first question for you, we have to go back a little bit, but what first drew you to the practice of medicine?
Dr. DeMarco: Well, actually, it was my father who had his own hidden agenda. He took me aside when I was about age 15 and encouraged me to consider it. And I guess I can only have him to thank, but also his family doctor, because it turns out my father never really trusted his family doctor, and he was hoping to get a local second opinion. And sure enough, after just a couple of weeks of medical school, he started consulting me on all matters related to his visits with his family doctor. So I have those two men to thank for being a doctor.
Farha: Love that. Now, looking back in those early days, did you ever imagine that your career would unfold the way it has?
Dr. DeMarco: I don’t even remember contemplating my distant future, and I still don’t. I just take life more or less one day at a time. So it’d be difficult to answer that question.
Farha: But you did take family medicine quite beyond where you had grown up in Ontario, to rural and remote communities across Canada. What drew you to doing that initially, and what can you tell us about those experiences?
Dr. DeMarco: Well, it’s been the main driver of everything in my life, and if I could sum it all up in one word, it would be curiosity. And I just wanted to see as much of the country as possible.
Farha: And so tell us about some of the places that you went to in those many years.
Dr. DeMarco: I guess my fondest recollections would be related to the years that I spent in the Arctic, in some of the most remote practices actually in the Western Hemisphere. In fact, one place on the real Victoria Island—not the Victoria Island that tourists mistakenly take for Vancouver Island—but the real Victoria Island is actually five times bigger and is one of the Arctic islands. And there I was practicing at age 28, about a thousand kilometres away from the nearest colleague with no road in between. And I just seemed to thrive in those sort of situations, and I didn’t find it stressful at all having no colleagues or specialists to back me up. I really embraced the challenge and the responsibility.
Farha: And so that certainly was a calling, an early calling that you could do this type of practice, which many people might find hard just because it is so remote, right?
Dr. DeMarco: I suppose. Maybe I was overconfident as a young practitioner. In fact, back in 1984, my very first job in Eatonia, Saskatchewan, I was solo. I had my own hospital, nowhere near any other one, bossing around nurses two or three times my age. And I just, I don’t know, I never really thought much about it. That’s just what I did. Now it was so long ago that my early career almost seems like childhood memories. But whatever naivety was involved in that, I don’t think it ever really cost me or my patients in any tangible way. It just seemed to be a positive thing.
Farha: You moved to many, many communities, and how would that work? Would you take on a contract temporarily, and what kept you moving around the country?
Dr. DeMarco: What kept me moving around, again, as I said, was curiosity. I just wanted to see as much of the country as possible, both from a cultural perspective, but also from a natural history perspective, and getting to know all the plants and birds across the country. And so I devoted myself to what are called locums for the first 12 years of my career and looked for jobs from anywhere from two weeks to two or three months where I’d be substituting for a doctor on vacation or on maternity leave. And it wasn’t as easy as it would be now, of course. There was no internet, so a lot of it had to do with phone calls and writing letters. But I eventually got to just about all the places on my list, which was, what, 52 of them, which is actually in all the provinces and territories except Alberta, which still won’t let me work there for some bureaucratic reason. But hopefully they will change that before the end of my career, because I do hope to become the first doctor in history to practice in all 13 provinces and territories. But Alberta remains the missing link on the list. But yeah, so it was just basically one whim after another and ticking off the places I wanted to get to.
Farha: Now, knowing what I know about you, and certainly about this life that we spoke about at the beginning where you’ve gone now hundreds and thousands of kilometres around the world on your bicycle, do you think those early days sort of set the foreground for what was to come in terms of that curiosity, of wanting to be in new places and to be exploring?
Dr. DeMarco: It went back before that, though. You know, I was on my bicycle from early childhood, and I just couldn’t wait to expand my radius of operation, which of course initially was limited to the driveway of our house. And in fact, I think one day when I was about 9 or 10, it was my longest—it was my biggest day so far. I think I did, even back then I had odometers on my bicycles, and I think I did 50 kilometres up and down our driveway that day. So I was so relieved when my mother allowed me to wander further afield with the admonition that I must stay well off the road, which of course is impossible. I’d be riding in a ditch. So from the time I was 9, I just had this burning curiosity as to what would be around the next corner or over the next hill. And that’s never diminished.
Farha: It certainly hasn’t. And now, you have been on your bike for, as you say, since childhood. You, on average, bike about 10,000 kilometres every year.
Dr. DeMarco: Minimum. The average is more than that. The average is basically a thousand a month, year-round.
Farha: Yeah, and you came it down to even 22.5 kilometres per day?
Dr. DeMarco: Times 58 years.
Farha: Times 58 years. Wow.
Dr. DeMarco: But you know what? It’s not actually a feat at all. It’s just a matter of time. And all I’ve done at age 66 is, for every hour that the average Canadian has spent in a car, I’ve spent on a bike instead. That’s all I’ve done. It’s just a matter of time.
Farha: Yes, yes. And so you don’t have a car, and you don’t travel by car. You always prefer buses and other forms of transport, is that right?
Dr. DeMarco: Yes. As a matter of fact, my policy—there are a few exceptions every year—but I try to maintain a policy of no engine ever runs just for me. So not only no car, but I rarely find myself in an Uber or a taxi either.
Farha: And you also have, when you choose roads, I remember you saying you choose them also based on the amount of traffic on a road, right? So you’re not going on busy roads, or you’re avoiding busy roads in order to enjoy the cycling.
Dr. DeMarco: Right. From a young age, I seem to have developed a knack for looking at maps. And with paper maps, of course, back then that’s all you could do, but now there are a lot of other ways to research routes. But I still just look at a map, and I seem to have a pretty good feel for what should be quiet roads, and I’m rarely wrong.
My international standard is I don’t want to see more than three cars a minute passing me by on my side of the road, and I almost always maintain that.
Farha: That’s a good one. And that keeps you safe as well, doesn’t it?
Dr. DeMarco: Safe and pleasant. I’d rather listen to birds than cars.
Farha: Now, we could carry this interview to all about your life as a cyclist, but we should go back to your life as a family physician because you have been in Whistler for quite a long time, and the practice there has changed over the years.
And you are unique as a family doctor because you continue having this teaching appointment with the University of British Columbia. So a lot of times when a patient comes to your practice in Whistler, you may have a student, perhaps even from UBC, working with you that day.
And that’s important to you. Why is that?
Dr. DeMarco: I think I could probably say that if I hadn’t been a doctor, I would have been a teacher. My father was a professor, and I think I inherited that tendency.
In fact, I think it also explains why my father not only had me, but he had eleven other children. So I was one of twelve, and my father had a true passion for teaching. He really enjoyed teaching us a lot of things, but especially sports.
And so that’s been passed on to me, and I really enjoy teaching.
Farha: And now, if my quote was right, I believe you had said in our local newspaper in Whistler, The Pique News magazine, there was an interview, I believe, on you, and you said that you see the medical profession—your job as a family practitioner—as a kind of hobby. Am I quoting you right on that?
Dr. DeMarco: I suppose. I mean, would I do it voluntarily? At this point, maybe I would. I certainly don’t need the income.
And my patients, my practice has almost been my extended family. I never had a family of my own. In fact, most of my patients have my personal email and cell number, and they can contact me anytime, and I don’t consider it to be an imposition.
Farha: And you’ve made a few house calls as well, I believe, right?
Dr. DeMarco: Thousands of house calls, actually, over the years.
Farha: More than a few.
Dr. DeMarco: It’s kind of ironic that in Whistler, the only doctor who doesn’t drive is the only doctor who does house calls.
Farha: Now, you realize that that is a little bit of a shout to the past, right? We don’t normally meet doctors like you who do that.
Dr. DeMarco: Yeah, unfortunately it seems to be a dying thing. But it’s actually one of my most enjoyable aspects of practice, getting out of the office, getting on my bike, and actually earning money to do it.
My first job as a nine-year-old was delivering newspapers, the Globe and Mail newspaper in Ontario. And if I look at the number of dollars per kilometre I was earning back then compared to, say, a house call now, it’s been a pretty good pay raise.
And so it’s not only satisfying, but it’s actually, since it’s generally offered to private clients in the hotels in Whistler, it’s actually quite a lucrative sideline.
Farha: Yeah. Now, every profession has its ups and downs, and so what are the challenges that you face as a family doctor?
Dr. DeMarco: I’m not really aware of any major challenges.
It’s funny because when you open up the medical journals, it’s full of content regarding so-called crises and challenges, as you say. But personally, I don’t really experience that.
And I would consider my job virtually stress-free.
Farha: Can you expand?
Dr. DeMarco: Again, it’s like an extended family. So I’m just looking after people I like, and I don’t consider them to be overly demanding. They’re consulting me for reasonable things, and they’re certainly well-motivated to get better.
And if I can help them along—either help them get better, or else help them prevent illness, which is even more satisfying—I’m happy to do that.
So, yeah, I don’t really experience stress, either from them or from my colleagues or from the system. I’m just very content with what I do.
Farha: Now, do you think that that is something, — that it’s an essence that you’ve fashioned in who you’ve made yourself become? Do you think what you do outside of your practice is also a big part of maybe why you feel that way?
Dr. DeMarco: I suppose you could talk about work-life balance, and I guess I achieved that early on because actually, all through my career, I have averaged 13 weeks off per year. And so there’s never really any risk of burnout.
And the other important element is that after I stopped doing emergency room, which was now 30 years ago, even though I’m on call for my patients, I turn off my phone every evening around 8 p.m., so I always get a good night’s sleep. And I think that’s very important.
Farha: And then, given your vacation, how do your patients work around that? You have locums that look after your job when you’re away, right?
Dr. DeMarco: Right, just as I used to do. I hire locums when I’m away.
And actually, I guess since COVID in particular, I’ve become more and more available virtually wherever I am in the world. So I actually go online now and check on patients’ reports and specialist consults and lab results, et cetera, on a daily basis wherever I am in the world. And if there’s something that I feel they should know, I just immediately will text them or email them. I don’t wait till I get home.
So I keep on top of the practice now every day of the year, wherever I may be. So, yes, I still take 13 weeks off a year, but they’re not completely work-free, those 13 weeks. But it doesn’t ruin my day, spending 45 minutes online and taking care of a few things. I actually find it, if anything, it adds to my holiday. It just makes me feel more useful.
Farha: Absolutely. Now, going back to your cycling trips, because you do so many, what type of preparation do you have? What do you anticipate? Are you a person that is spontaneous in how you travel? Do you do things last minute? Do you have something projected every year that you want to, you know, to go to such and such a place?
I’m just curious about that because you do travel to so many countries, and sometimes maybe a few continents per year, if I’m not mistaken.
Dr. DeMarco: Well, last year it was four continents, 17 countries. It’s a combination of experience and organization and also spontaneity.
I look at maps every day of the year, since I was a kid. In fact, I’ve read every National Geographic in one language or another since 1972, cover to cover. Geography has always been my passion, maybe more so than medicine, or birds or bicycling.
And yes, just studying maps and reading about geography gives me ideas. But I don’t micromanage. I don’t over-plan my trips.
In fact, I can honestly declare now that over 1,300 times in my life, I’ve woken up in the morning with no idea where I was going to sleep that night, and no tent and no sleeping bag.
Farha: And how do you deal with that?
Dr. DeMarco: It’s not stressful if I keep at it that much. And in fact, it’s exciting. You know, just letting the terrain and the wind and circumstances ultimately dictate where you end up that day.
I usually have, of course, some idea where I’m going to end up, but sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong. But I always manage to find a place to stay.
Farha: And sometimes you have interesting ways to deal with something like jet lag. I remember a piece of yours that you had written where you were in the north. I’m trying to remember if it was Finland or one of the Scandinavian countries.
Dr. DeMarco: Norway and Finland.
Farha: Norway and Finland, yes. And you decided to bike, because it would have been around this time of year where the sun is out for long periods. And you took advantage of that to sort of get your system back to the time zone that you knew you were coming back to.
Dr. DeMarco: Well, that’s funny you mention that because people still ask me, with all these travels, what’s my favourite ride? And 25 years later, it may still be my favourite ride of all time. And it was riding under the midnight sun across northern Norway and Finland.
And the advantage of riding at night and sleeping during the day is, of course, that you have the world to yourself, just you and the birds. And coming from BC, there’s no jet lag at all because you just stay on BC time in Europe and sleep during the day, ride at night.
And that was just an absolute dream, in terms of a road cyclist’s dream, just to ride all night without any cars, on a beautiful paved road. It would be like riding Highway 99, but with no cars.
People pay $350 in the GranFondo to get that, but I had that for free, other than the airfare to get over there.
And it was just so peaceful and so beautiful, of course, because the sun is out but low. I also enjoy photography, so it provides very, very good light for the photos. And of course, the birds are more active as well, and the wind is less windy.
So there are all advantages and no disadvantages. And that’s why it remains my favourite bike trip of all time.
Farha: Yeah, we have an experience as a family fishing up in the Yukon at midnight, and it was really lovely.
Dr. DeMarco: So you can relate.
Farha: Now, so you may not know the trips you’re going on, but you are definitely after seeing many different parts of the world and places. Do you have an objective that you’d like to reach in your lifetime, or is it really just year by year, you look at the maps and you decide where you want to go?
Is it about going back to the same places, or is it about going to new places each time?
Dr. DeMarco: I definitely don’t have any long-term objective. As I said earlier in the interview, I just basically live one day at a time.
Having said that, of course, I have to do some forward planning. But I definitely don’t have any specific objectives, both in terms of mileage or in terms of number of birds or number of countries.
Having said that, there are a few now, since I’m approaching certain natural milestones. I would like to eventually complete my list of European countries cycled, which I’ve done 48 of the 51. But unfortunately Belarus and Ukraine are two of the three I haven’t done.
And I might as well complete my list of the U.S. states cycled because now I’m at 43, so I eventually should do the other seven, I suppose.
But other than that, I don’t necessarily have any specific geographical or numerical objectives.
Well, I suppose actually now there is another one. Talking about approaching milestones, since it’s been 23 years in a row of a minimum of 10,000 kilometres, yes, I’d like to get to 25 years in a row of 10,000 kilometres.
Farha: Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.
And so, can you just give us, because you realize that this is exciting stuff, to imagine that you’re on a bicycle—the bicycle that you brought into the studio— you’ve owned for how many years?
Dr. DeMarco: That one I bought in what was called Hull, Quebec, now Gatineau, in 1993. So it’s 33 years old.
I have several bikes, of course, all over the world. And they’re all over the world because it’s awkward to travel with bikes, but it’s nice to have them when you get there, right?
Farha: And so do you leave them with people you know?
Dr. DeMarco: Right, or at my properties, because I have a place in Ontario. I have a little farm. I just bought, as I told you, a farm in Ontario. And I have a place here in Vancouver, obviously bicycles in Whistler, and then a place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
And then I keep a bicycle also in England with a friend there.
And it sounds extravagant, but as a matter of fact, my average fleet age—this one’s 33 years old—the average fleet age is now, I think, 23 years old.
It’s not like I buy a new bike every year.
Farha: No, but each bike—and you brought it into the studio—because these bikes have a lot of memories, right? You wouldn’t want this one to be taken by someone.
Dr. DeMarco: Do they have sentimental value? I suppose to a certain extent. But they ultimately are just things, and I don’t think I’d be too choked if I were to have the misfortune of losing one or crashing one or having one stolen.
But I keep very good care of them.
And in fact, as old as they may be, I can honestly say that every one of them is better—not as good, but better—than the day I bought them.
And that’s the fun thing about bicycles, is that you can upgrade them because there are so many different moving parts and non-moving parts that ultimately what you’re keeping with a 22-year-old or 33-year-old bike is really just the frame and the handlebars, maybe the rear rack or something.
The rest has to be replaced, of course, because it wears out.
And it’s fun just to keep the fleet going. The bikes actually get better and better as the years go on.
Farha: Now, are you your own mechanic?
Dr. DeMarco: Well, to a certain extent, of course, you have to be, bicycling in remote areas.
But every bike is also brought to a mechanic every year for a proper tune-up and replacing whatever parts need to be replaced.
So a little bit of both.
Farha: Yes. So what else do you want to tell me about this other element, about birdwatching? Because that is a real part of your cycling adventures.
Do you aim to go to certain reserves or protected areas each time you travel? Or what are you doing really on that end when you’re planning a trip that always, inevitably, or hopefully, you’ll see some new species you’ve never seen before?
Dr. DeMarco: Right. Certainly not always, though. You get into diminishing returns.
Even though, getting back to the comment you made before, I never—to answer the question—I never do the same route twice.
I’ll obviously end up in the same country more than once and the same area more than once, but I never ride the same route twice.
And that actually enhances your likelihood of seeing new wildflowers or seeing new trees or seeing new birds because you’re in a different place every time you leave home.
But having said that, there are certain geographic areas, like Western Europe and most of North America, where it’s extremely unlikely that I would find a new life bird.
But it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ones that you come across on the route.
And now another fine element of the technology is the Merlin app on the phone.
I can broaden my knowledge of the bird calls and familiarize myself better with their songs and their calls.
And there’s something that really enhances your experience as you’re riding from hour to hour, just to know that everything you hear, you know what it is.
Continue reading Part II: A Life in Motion — In Conversation with Dr. Tom DeMarco