Canadian Medical Association's first Black president brings N.L. resilience to role

Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi, a dermatologist in St. John's, N.L., is shown in this handout photo from December 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — David Howells

ST. JOHN’S — A dermatologist in St. John’s, N.L., became the new president of the Canadian Medical Association today.

The association says 39-year-old Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi is its first Black president and among its youngest-ever leaders.

Ogunyemi says he is also the association’s first president to have graduated from the medical school at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In an interview, Ogunyemi said he is particularly well-equipped to tackle national health-care problems as a physician in Canada’s easternmost province.

He says finding solutions will require the kind of resilience that arose in Newfoundland and Labrador after a 1992 moratorium on cod fishing wiped out its rural economy.

Newfoundland and Labrador has also long been home to several health-care concerns now emerging across Canada, including an aging population.

Ogunyemi says he is pleased to be in a position to inspire people from different backgrounds to “bring their best selves.”

“I’m hoping that, in the future, the composition of physicians in our country more closely reflects the patients that we’re called to serve,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press