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Tommy Douglas

Thomas Clement Douglas (October 20, 1904 - February 24, 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian Baptist minister, politician, and premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961. He was a leading figure in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a left-wing political party, and as premier formed North America's first socialist government, introducing innovative social reforms such as hospital insurance, the beginning of Canada's medicare program.

Douglas was born in 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland. In 1910, his family emigrated to Canada, where they located in Winnipeg. During World War I, the family returned to Glasgow but came back to Winnipeg in 1920.

As a preacher, Douglas was influenced by the social gospel movement which believed in combining Christian principles with social reform. After graduating from Brandon College in 1930, he won a position as minister at the Calvary Baptist Church in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. With the onset of the Depression Douglas became a social activist in his community (Weyburn), joined the new CCF party, became a freemason, and was elected to the House of Commons in 1935.

Douglas was an active MP, but he also maintained an interest in provincial politics and became the leader of the Saskatchwan CCF, later called the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, in 1942. On June 15 1944, he led the CCF to power in the provincial general election, taking 47 of 53 seats in the legislature.

Douglas and the Saskatchewan CCF won five straight majority victories. However, most of his government's pioneering innovations were concentrated in its first term, including the assembly of two publicly owned utilities, Sask Tel and Sask Power; 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; and a program to offer free hospital care to all citizens -- again, the first in Canada.

Through careful financial management, the Douglas government slowly paid off the huge debt left by the Saskatchewan Liberals and took Saskatchewan to a surplus position. This paved the way for Douglas's biggest achievement, the introduction of universal medicare legislation in Saskatchewan in 1961. But although Douglas is often described as the "father of medicare" in Canada, the Saskatchewan program was actually launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962. (After seeing the success of the Saskatchewan experiment, Prime Minister Lester Pearson and the other provinces agreed to the creation of a national medicare program in 1967.)

When the CCF became the New Democratic Party in 1961, Douglas defeated Hazen Argue at the first NDP leadership convention and became the party's first leader, serving until 1971. While the NDP did better in elections than its predecessor, the CCF the party did not experience the breakthrough it had hoped for. Despite this, Douglas was greatly respected by both party members and Canadians at large. In 1970 Douglas and the NDP took a controversial but principled stand against the implementation of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis and it was largely Douglas' influence that led to the Medicare becoming a national program.

After his resignation in 1971 Douglas kept his seat in the House of Commons until he retired from politics in 1979.

Douglas resigned from provincial politics in 1961. He ran for the federal NDP seat in Regina in 1962, but was defeated. He was later elected in a Burnaby/Coquitlam by-election. Re-elected in that riding in both 1963 and 1965, Douglas lost the 1968 federal election. He then entered the 1968 Nanaimo/Cowichan Islands by-election and won a seat. He resigned as NDP leader in 1971, but was named the NDP's energy critic. Re-elected in Nanaimo/Cowichan Islands in 1972 and 1974, Douglas did not seek re-election again.

In the mid 1980s, Brandon University created a student union building in honour of Douglas and old friend Stanley Knowles.

Douglas died of cancer in 1986 at the age of 81.

He is the father of Canadian actress Shirley Douglas, and the grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland.

Preceded by: Hazen Argue (CCF) 1960-1961

Federal NDP leader 1961-1971

Succeeded by: David Lewis 1971-1975