CanadaWho was Tommy Douglas?
Thomas Clement Douglas was born in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1904 and emigrated with his family to Winnipeg. He became a Baptist minister in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where the Great Depression drew him into politics. He was elected to the House of Commons for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1935. In 1944 he led the CCF to power in Saskatchewan, governing as premier until 1961. He then became the first leader of the federal New Democratic Party and served until 1971. He died in 1986.
Political views
Led the CCF, a democratic socialist party, to government in Saskatchewan in 1944.
Source: thecanadianencyclopedia.caIntroduced public hospital insurance and then medicare in Saskatchewan, earning the label 'father of medicare'.
Source: cbc.caCreated Crown corporations and expanded public services such as power and insurance in Saskatchewan.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLed the main parliamentary opposition to the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWrote a 1933 thesis endorsing eugenic measures, but by the time he was premier he had rejected recommendations for sterilization.
Source: thecanadianencyclopedia.caGrounded his politics in the social gospel, linking Christian ethics to economic justice.
Source: thecanadianencyclopedia.caPassed the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, which protected fundamental freedoms and equality rights against both government and private abuse.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCreated a publicly owned automobile insurance service, extended electricity to farms and allowed unionization of the public service.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Legacy
Douglas is best known as the father of Canadian medicare, and in 2004 CBC viewers voted him 'The Greatest Canadian'. In 2019 the federal government designated him a person of national historic significance. Supporters credit him with showing that a socialist government could balance budgets while building universal public services. Critics in his time warned that medicare and Crown corporations would raise costs and crowd out private enterprise, and Saskatchewan doctors went on strike against medicare in 1962. His early eugenics thesis has drawn later criticism, which the Canadian Encyclopedia sets against his later rejection of those ideas.