Thomas Douglas was frustrated Douglas resigned as NDP leader in 1971, but retained his seat in the House of Commons. [27] He was not a pacifist, unlike his party's leader, J. S. Woodsworth, and stated his reasons: If you accept the completely absolutist position of the pacifist, then you are saying that you are prepared to allow someone else who has no such scruples to destroy all the values you've built up. The "Greatest Canadian" was not decided by a simple popular poll, but was instead chosen through a two-step voting process. He also helped establish democratic socialism in mainstream Canadian politics. Pierre Trudeau placed third, behind Terry Fox and the winner, Tommy Douglas. Lock him up!” So they put him in jail. Douglas was born Oct. 20, 1904, in Falkirk, Scotland. [45][46], The October 1970 Quebec FLQ Crisis put Douglas and David Lewis—now a Member of Parliament—on the "hotseat", with Lewis being the only NDP MP with any roots in Quebec. In the biography mini-series, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, which aired on 12 and 13 March 2006, also on CBC, Douglas was played by Michael Therriault. finance a war. And he said to the other mice, “Look fellows, why do we keep on electing Elections, 1952-2005, N.B. Douglas fonds, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan", "The Left: From Hope to Sneers in 25 Years", "A Canadian Paradox: Tommy Douglas and Eugenics", Tommy Douglas and his Government 1944–1960, CBC Digital Archives – Tommy Douglas and the NDP, Tommy Douglas – Parliament of Canada biography, Members of provincial/territorial assemblies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tommy_Douglas&oldid=971342235, Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia, Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Saskatchewan, Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Members of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MLAs, Royal Canadian Geographical Society fellows, Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada), Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2020, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, the creation of Canada's first publicly owned automotive insurance service, the. Undeterred by this failure, he decided to run as a CCF candidate in the 1935 federal election. Douglas did well at Brandon College, winning gold medals and other academic prizes and eventually becoming “senior stick,” which was president of the school council. [42] Six months later, Argue crossed the floor and became a Liberal.[43][44]. [25] With the onset of the Depression, Douglas became a social activist in Weyburn, and joined the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) political party. The owner offered to pay Douglas's way through night school so that he could learn Portuguese and Spanish, languages that would enable him to become a cork buyer. During the First World War, his father volunteered for overseas service in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. George Stroumboulopoulos shares the life of Tommy Douglas, declaring him a "rebel." “Whenever the powers that be can’t get what they want, they’re always They returned to Glasgow during World War I but came back to settle in Winnipeg in 1919. Douglas is considered the Canadian "father of Medicare." In, Marshall, Tabitha, and L.d. And every time on election day all the little mice Tommy Douglas resigned as premier of Saskatchewan in 1961 to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). In 1966, the Liberal minority government of Lester B. Pearson created such a program, with the federal government paying 50% of the costs and the provinces the other half. While the NDP did better in elections than its CCF predecessor, the party did not experience the breakthrough it had hoped for. Although CCF party leader J.S. with the provinces. [5] From a rooftop vantage point on Main Street, he witnessed the police charging the strikers with clubs and guns, and a streetcar being overturned and set on fire. • #18 Shania Twain - the highest-ranking woman nominee on the list. I've no patience with people who want to sit back and talk about a blueprint for society and do nothing about it. In 1976, CBC-TV profiles political columnist and former Front Page Challenge panellist Allan Fotheringham. • Producers of The Greatest Canadian had created fake finalist lists as part of a contingency plan. [15] The thesis proposed a system that would have required couples seeking to marry to be certified as mentally and morally fit. • The German version of the Great series voted Konrad Adenauerm - the German statesman who revitalized Germany in the 1950's into an world economic powerhouse, as the Greatest German. Can shopping and banking be far behind? Coquitlam. Douglas took a course in socialism at Brandon and studied Greek philosophy. Osteomyelitis set in and he underwent a number of operations in Scotland in an attempt to cure the condition. Douglas was mentioned in the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, which compared the health care system in the United States with that of Canada and other countries. Elections: Liberal Landslides and Tory Tides, Showdown on the Prairies: A History of Saskatchewan Elections, Territorial Battles: Yukon Elections, 1978-2006, The 'Other Revolution': Louis Robichaud's New Brunswick, Equality First: The Royal Commission on the Status of Women, Pot and Politics: Canada and the Marijuana Debate, Sue Rodriguez and the Right-To-Die Debate, Trudeau's Omnibus Bill: Challenging Canadian Taboos, Voting in Canada: How a Privilege Became a Right. Honourable T.C. that he could make a difference as a pastor and began to save money for theological studies. Brad Pitt and Keira Knightley both scored early roles in scary movies. How Vacancies in the US Congress are Filled. A Baptist minister, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Looking for some great streaming picks? The late Tommy Douglas, Canada’s venerable socialist leader and the father of its single-payer health care system, is now revered as the “greatest Canadian.” But in his time, he was a radical and an enemy of the establishment. A small man with a huge personality, Tommy Douglas was gregarious, witty, feisty and kind. [47] He and Lewis were opposed to 16 October implementation of the War Measures Act. of “mental defectives and those incurably diseased.” His ideas were not unique, as two Canadian provinces (and 32 American states) passed sexual-sterilization legislation in the 1920s and 1930s. How The East Was Won: Nova Scotia Elections Since 1949, How the West is Won: B.C. Remembering the wit and wisdom of one of Canada's most incisive minds. This time, he was successful, partly because he had learned to exploit a special talent: the ability to make people laugh. "[50], About five years later, many of the MPs who voted to implement it regretted doing so, and belatedly honoured Douglas and Lewis for their stand against it.