Tommy Douglas

• Born: October 20, 1904
• Birthplace: Falkirk, Scotland
• Died: February 24, 1986
• Place of death: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Tommy Douglas is often hailed as the father of universal public healthcare in Canada. A member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), Douglas was premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961. He also established other progressive social policies during his career, such as unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, mother's allowances, and bargaining rights for civil servants. After the CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the New Democratic Party, Douglas served as its first federal leader from 1961 to 1971.

Early Life

Thomas Clement Douglas was born on October 20, 1904, in Falkirk, Scotland. In 1910, he moved to Canada with his mother and sisters to join his father, who had immigrated to Winnipeg the year before. During World War I (1914–18), the family returned to Scotland, but they moved back to Canada in 1919, when Douglas was fourteen years old.

Douglas' social and political views were shaped early in life, when shortly after he and his first family arrived in Winnipeg, Douglas was diagnosed with a bone infection in one of his legs. Douglas' leg required the services of a specialist, but the family was not in a financial position to pay for this service. The family was told that in order to prevent the infection from spreading to the rest of his body, his leg would have to be amputated. However, a visiting surgeon offered to operate on his leg free of charge – with the provision that the surgeon's students could view the surgery. This event helped to shape his interest in healthcare availability, so that everyone, regardless of income, could have access to healthcare.

After Douglas and his family had returned to Canada in 1919, Douglas witnessed Canada's first general labor strike. Douglas watched firsthand as officers fired at the people who took part in the Winnipeg General Strike in the summer of 1919, an event known as "Bloody Saturday." During the labor strike, the police shot and killed two men. This event further sparked Douglas' interest in the concerns of the working class.

Education & Religious Career

When Tommy was twenty years old, he enrolled in the Manitoba's Brandon College with aspirations to become a preacher. Here, he was taught about the social gospel movement, which combines Christianity and social reform. While at this college, Tommy was recognized for his natural leadership abilities and his intellect. He also loved drama and debating. In fact, during his spare time, Tommy would travel to rural churches and give speeches to the assembled crowds. He met his future wife, Irma Dempsey, at one of these rural churches.

Douglas earned a master's degree in sociology from McMaster University. His thesis dealt with eugenics, or selective breeding, and was titled "The Problems of the Subnormal Family." In his thesis, Douglas advocates the sterilization and segregation of Canada's mentally and physically handicapped citizens as a means of social reform. However, around 1938, after working with poor people in Chicago and visiting Nazi Germany, he stopped advocating eugenics. After that, he rarely discussed his graduate work.

In 1933, Douglas became the minister of a Baptist church in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. While preaching at this church, he witnessed firsthand how people suffered as a result of the Great Depression. At this point, since he wanted to do something more to help the people of Canada, Tommy decided to become a social and political activist.

Early Political Life

Douglas helped to create a new local political party called the Independent Labor party in Weyburn in 1932. As president of this new party, Douglas attempted to bring awareness to socialist issues. Eventually, this party evolved into the Farmer-Labor Party – a party that promised to provide hospital care, pension, and unemployment insurance for all. By the summer of 1932, a new party that combined the labor parties of the four western provinces was formed. Called the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), this party became Canada's first democratic socialist party. Two years later, Douglas ran in a provincial election – albeit unsuccessfully.

Then, in 1935, Douglas was elected into Canada's parliament in Ottawa, along with four other CCF members. As a member of parliament (MP) during World War II, Douglas noted that while Canada could well afford to wage a war against foreign countries, it had yet to find the money to fight poverty within its own nation.

Premier of Saskatchewan

Douglas began to grow frustrated with the lack of progress that he was making on a national level. In 1942, Douglas became the leader of Saskatchewan's provincial CCF party – while still holding his MP seat. Two years later, with a slogan of "Humanity First," Douglas won the Saskatchewan election. Thus, at the age of thirty-nine, he formed the first democratic socialist government in all of North America. Because of Canada's loose federal structure, Douglas was able to pass more than 100 bills in his first year as premier of Saskatchewan. What was impossible to do on a national level, he was able to accomplish at the provincial level.

Specifically, during the first years of his office, pensioners were granted free hospital, medical, and dental services. Furthermore, he made the medical treatment of tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness, and venereal diseases free for everyone in the province. A few years later in 1947, he implemented universal hospitalization at a fee of $5 per person on an annual basis - so that everyone could afford this service.

He implemented other innovative programs that included old-age pension plans. Douglas also paved roads, provided electricity, sewage technology, and even paid off $20 million of the province's debt. This was done after he removed the sales taxes on meals and food. Further, Douglas reshaped education by furnishing the University of Saskatchewan with a medical school. The Douglas administration also provided affordable universal phone access to Saskatchewan residents.

As premier, Douglas also created new departments within the government that included the department of co-operatives, the department of labor, and the department of social welfare. All of the CCF cabinet ministers took a twenty-eight percent cut in pay in order to finance these new departments. At the beginning of Douglas' reign, agriculture made up eighty percent of Saskatchewan's gross domestic product (GDP). However, although more farmland was being utilized, this number was down to thirty-five percent as Douglas' government promoted the development of other business, both in the private and public sectors. Douglas also ensured that the Saskatchewan Timber Board would control the lumber industry to ensure that this industry would remain profitable without destroying entire forests.

Douglas' government established minimum wage standards, as well as workers' compensation. Further, he granted government workers more rights and even implemented legislation that made collective bargaining mandatory.

NDP Political Life

In 1961, the CCF party joined with large unions to form the New Democratic Party (NDP), of which Douglas became leader. He could effectively articulate the party's democratic socialist platform in ethical terms that resonated with the Canadian public. Even though the CCF and the NDP had essentially the same party platform, this new party formation attracted new interested members, and as a result, the party gained momentum at the national level.

At the provincial level, Douglas was met with criticisms of his latest project, universal Medicare. The Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons objected to it, and doctors in the province went on strike in protest of the program, an event known as the 1962 Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike. However, Douglas persisted in developing and financing universal Medicare in the province of Saskatchewan. While he is often credited as the first to institute universal healthcare provincially, it was his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, who launched Saskatchewan's healthcare program.

When Douglas ran as leader of the national NDP in 1962, he was defeated in his attempt to become the MP of the Regina region, largely due to the backlash that resulted from implementing Saskatchewan's Medicare program. Further, the NDP only won a total of nineteen seats nationally. Douglas ended up winning a seat in a by-election (when a political position is filled in between elections, usually as a result of death or resignation). In this position, he advocated for socialist causes at the national level. However, he was not able to match his achievements at the provincial level, although Lester B. Pearson's Liberals did adopt a national Medicare and pension plan in the late 1960s.

Retirement

In 1971, Douglas resigned as leader of the NDP, but he remained active in the party as an energy critic until he retired in 1979. During his retirement, he continued to give speeches occasionally at NDP functions. In 1981, Douglas was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, which is the country's highest civilian honor.

Douglas died of cancer on February 24, 1986, at the age of eighty-one. He continues to be remembered for his contributions to Canadian life. In fact, in 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Network (CBC) declared him to be "The Greatest Canadian."

Bibliography

Munroe, Susan. "Tommy Douglas, the Canadian 'Father of Medicare'." ThoughtCo, 3 July 2019, www.thoughtco.com/tommy-douglas-510304. Accessed 7 Sept. 2022.

"Tommy Douglas." CBC Learning, www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP14CH3PA5LE.html. Accessed 7 Sept. 2022.

Wong, Kevin. "Tommy Douglas, a Remarkable Canadian." Physicians for a National Health Program, pnhp.org/news/tommy-douglas-a-remarkable-canadian/. Accessed 7 Sept. 2022.