50 Facts About Tommy Douglas

Thomas Clement Douglas was a Canadian politician who served as the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971.

Tommy Douglas left federal politics to become Leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan.

Tommy Douglas's government introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program.

Tommy Douglas was elected as its first federal leader in 1961.

Tommy Douglas was noted as being the main opposition to the imposition of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis.

Tommy Douglas resigned as leader the next year, but remained as a Member of Parliament until 1979.

Thomas Clement Tommy Douglas was born in 1904 in Camelon, Falkirk, Scotland, the son of Annie and Thomas Tommy Douglas, an iron moulder who fought in the Boer War.

Shortly before he left Scotland, Tommy Douglas fell and injured his right knee.

Later in Winnipeg, the osteomyelitis flared up again, and Tommy Douglas was sent to hospital.

Tommy Douglas witnessed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shoot and kill one of the workers.

In 1920, at the age of 15, Tommy Douglas began amateur boxing at the One Big Union gym in Winnipeg.

Tommy Douglas sustained a broken nose, a loss of some teeth, and a strained hand and thumb.

In 1930, Tommy Douglas married Irma Dempsey, a music student at Brandon College.

Tommy Douglas completed his elementary education after returning to Glasgow.

Tommy Douglas worked as a soap boy in a barber shop, rubbing lather into tough whiskers, then dropped out of high school at 13 after landing a job in a cork factory.

However, the family returned to Winnipeg when the war ended and Tommy Douglas entered the printing trades.

Tommy Douglas served a five-year apprenticeship and worked as a Linotype operator finally acquiring his journeyman's papers, but decided to return to school to pursue his ambition to become an ordained minister.

In 1924, the 19-year-old Tommy Douglas enrolled at Brandon College, a Baptist school affiliated with McMaster University, to finish high school and study theology.

Tommy Douglas took a course in socialism at Brandon and studied Greek philosophy.

Tommy Douglas came first in his class during his first three years, then competed for gold medals in his last three with a newly arrived student named Stanley Knowles.

Tommy Douglas financed his education at Brandon College by conducting Sunday services at several rural churches for 15 dollars a week.

Tommy Douglas earned money delivering entertaining monologues and poetry recitations at church suppers and service club meetings for five dollars a performance.

Tommy Douglas graduated from Brandon College in 1930 and completed his Master of Arts degree in sociology at McMaster University in 1933.

Tommy Douglas rarely mentioned his thesis later in his life, and his government never enacted eugenics policies, though two official reviews of Saskatchewan's mental health system recommended such a program when he became premier and minister of health.

Tommy Douglas never completed his PhD thesis, but was deeply disturbed by his field work in the Depression-era "jungles" or hobo camps where about 75,000 transients sheltered in lean-tos venturing out by day to beg or to steal.

Two months after Tommy Douglas graduated from Brandon College, he married Irma Dempsey, and the two moved to the town of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where he became an ordained minister at the Calvary Baptist Church.

Tommy Douglas was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1935 federal election.

Tommy Douglas assisted Woodsworth, during his leader's speech, by holding up the pages and turning them for him, even though he disagreed with him.

Woodsworth had suffered a stroke earlier in the year and he needed someone to hold his notes, and Tommy Douglas still held him in very high regard, and dutifully assisted his leader.

Tommy Douglas had volunteered for overseas service when a medical examination turned up his old leg problems.

Tommy Douglas stayed in Canada and the Grenadiers headed for Hong Kong.

Tommy Douglas led the CCF to power in the 15 June 1944 provincial election, winning 47 of 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, and thus forming the first social democratic government in not only Canada, but all of North America.

Tommy Douglas was the first head of any government in Canada to call for a constitutional bill of rights.

Tommy Douglas introduced medical insurance reform in his first term, and gradually moved the province towards universal medicare near the end of his last term.

The doctors believed their best interests were not being met and feared a significant loss of income as well as government interference in medical care decisions even though Tommy Douglas agreed that his government would pay the going rate for service that doctors charged.

Tommy Douglas is widely known as the father of Medicare, but the Saskatchewan universal program was finally launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962.

Tommy Douglas stepped down as premier and as a member of the legislature the previous year, to lead the newly formed federal successor to the CCF, the New Democratic Party of Canada.

Also, Coldwell and Tommy Douglas thought Lewis would not be a viable alternative to Argue because Lewis was not likely to defeat Argue; this was partly due to Lewis' lack of a parliamentary seat but, and likely more importantly, because his role as party disciplinarian over the years had made him many enemies, enough to potentially prevent him from winning the leadership.

Tommy Douglas handily defeated Argue on 3 August 1961 at the first NDP leadership convention in Ottawa, and became the new party's first leader.

Tommy Douglas resigned from provincial politics and sought election to the House of Commons in the riding of Regina City in 1962, but was defeated by Ken More.

Rather than treating it as a criminal offence with imprisonment, Tommy Douglas believed it could be treated by psychiatrists and social workers.

Tommy Douglas resigned as NDP leader in 1971, but retained his seat in the House of Commons.

Tommy Douglas served as the NDP's energy critic under the new leader, David Lewis.

Tommy Douglas retired from politics in 1979 and served on the board of directors of Husky Oil, an Alberta oil and gas exploration company that had holdings in Saskatchewan.

In 1980, Tommy Douglas was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree honoris causa by Carleton University in Ottawa.

On 22 June 1981, Tommy Douglas was appointed to the Order of Canada as a Companion for his service as a political leader, and innovator in public policy.

In June 1984, Tommy Douglas was injured when he was struck by a bus, but he quickly recovered and on his 80th birthday he claimed to The Globe and Mail that he usually walked up to five miles a day.

Tommy Douglas died of cancer at the age of 81 on 24 February 1986, in Ottawa and was buried at Beechwood Cemetery.

Tommy 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.

Tommy Douglas was known for his retelling of the fable of "Mouseland", which likens the majority of voters to mice, and how they either elect black or white cats as their politicians, but never their own mice: meaning that workers and their general interests were not being served by electing wealthy politicians from the Liberal or Conservative parties, and that only a party from their class, originally the CCF, later the NDP, could serve their interests.