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Tommy Douglas |
The Honourable Thomas Clement Douglas, PC , CC , SOM ,
M.A. , LL.D. (October 20, 1904 - February 24, 1986)
was a Scottish-born Canadian Baptist minister until
becoming a socially democratic politician.
Tommy Douglas has been referred to as the "most
influential politician never to be elected Prime
Minister of Canada." He pursued his "radical" ideas
relentlessly until they became so mainstream rival
politicians claimed them as their own. Called a
communist and threatened by in-party fighting, Douglas
battled hard to champion universal public medicare as
Premier of Saskatchewan, in Canada, against
U.S.-sponsored private healthcare lobbyists in Canada.
Tommy Douglas became the leader of the socially
progressive Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth
Federation (CCF) Party in 1942. He led the CCF to
power in the June 15, 1944 provincial election, taking
47 of 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of
Saskatchewan. Douglas and the Saskatchewan CCF then
won five straight majority victories. Most of his
government's pioneering innovations came about during
its first term, including:
- the creation of the publicly-owned utilities:
SaskTel and SaskPower;
- the creation of Canada's first publicly owned
automobile insurance service, the Saskatchewan
Government Insurance Office;
- legislation that allowed the unionization of the
public service;
- a program to offer free hospital care to all
citizens-the first in Canada.
- legislation that outlawed discrimination based
on gender and race (this preceded the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United
Nations by 18 months).
Through careful financial management, the Douglas
government slowly paid off the huge debt left by the
previous Liberal government, and created a budget
surplus for the Saskatchewan government. This paved
the way for Douglas's most notable achievement, the
introduction of universal medicare legislation in
1961.
Tommy Douglas was often criticized for his singular
idealism but through it all Douglas was undeterred,
convinced that he was helping to create a better, more
humane society. In 2004, Douglas was voted number one
in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Television's
(CBC-TV) 'The Greatest Canadian' contest.
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