I want to share something a little different today: a piece of medical science fiction I wrote in the form of a final-year medical dissertation. To be clear up front, it is fiction. The drug, the company, the patent and the clinical results are all invented. But the questions underneath it are real, and they have been on my mind for a long time.
Why a dissertation, and why fiction
The story is called Autologous Sensory Telemetry. It imagines an injectable agent, CV-9, that records what a patient sees and hears at the point where the eye and ear turn light and sound into nerve signals. The record is encrypted, sent to a small group of satellites, and can only be opened by the patient.
I chose the dissertation format because it forces honesty. A real dissertation has to list its limitations, admit what went wrong and say plainly what it cannot prove. Writing fiction that way made me think hard about consent, privacy and who controls medical data, instead of just imagining a cool gadget.
Two years at Saint Joe’s
A lot of where this comes from is the two years I spent volunteering at the trauma centre at Saint Joe’s. You learn quickly there how much of medicine depends on people describing moments they barely remember, and how frightening it is to lose control over what happens to you. That stayed with me, and it is all through this story.
The ideas I care about most
Three ideas drive the piece. First, a medical record the patient does not control is not care; it is surveillance. Second, every patient should have an off switch that only they can press. Third, when a valuable patent is fought over, the winner should be the community. In the story, every royalty dollar goes to Comox Valley health care, including mental health and substance use programmes.
If you enjoy medical science fiction, ethics in health tech, or just a strange story told with a straight face, read the full speculative fiction dissertation here. I would love to hear what you think of it.
Note: this is a work of speculative fiction. It does not describe a real treatment, study or medical device, and nothing in it is medical advice.
As of October 18, 2026, the official election results give us a useful starting point for understanding the situation.
How close was the last election?
Official results: Elections Canada. Johns finished 3,589 votes ahead of the Conservative candidate. Percentages are rounded.
What would have to happen for Gord Johns to lose his seat?
1. Another candidate wins the next federal election.
Under Canada’s first-past-the-post system, the candidate with the most votes wins the riding. The winner does not need more than 50% of the vote.
2. The Conservatives or Liberals change their electoral position.
In 2025, Conservative candidate Kris McNichol received 28,028 votes, compared with Johns’s 31,617. The gap was 3,589 votes. The Liberal candidate received another 18,078 votes.
3. Johns leaves Parliament before the next election.
He could also cease to be the MP if he resigns, dies, is disqualified through a relevant legal process, or the House of Commons expels him. A successful legal challenge to his election could also result in his seat being declared vacant. A vacancy may lead to a by-election.
Simply changing political parties or losing a party leadership contest would not, by itself, automatically remove him as MP.
When could voters replace him?
The next scheduled federal election date is October 15, 2029, although a federal election can be called earlier.
You can follow the official information here: Elections Canada — Courtenay—Alberni election results.
Bottom line: Johns can lose the riding at a future election, and the 2025 results show that other parties attracted substantial support. Those facts alone do not establish his chances of winning or losing the next election; that would require current, relevant polling or other evidence about voter intentions.
And stop following me around the airpark your making my voters nervous.