The Greatest Canadian

Officially launched on April 5, 2004, The Greatest Canadian was a project by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to find who is the greatest ever Canadian. The project was inspired by the BBC series Great Britons.

The Greatest Canadian

On November 29, Tommy Douglas won the title as Greatest Canadian. He had been at first place for almost the entire contest. Douglas is famous as a father of medicare. Prior to his political career, he received his Arts degree at Brandon College, where he met his best friend Stanley Knowles as well as his wife. He became a Baptist minister in small prairie towns such as Carberry, Manitoba, before he became a minister in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. During his time as a minister in Weyburn, at the height of the Great Depression, local farmers would come to him for help since many of them were losing their farms to holding corporations as they were unable to pay their bills on time. Douglas helped start up the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation as a lobby group of farmers, and it became a political party. Soon, people of the working class wanted to be part of the group, although they traditionally never got along with fellow farmers. While Douglas was Premier of Saskatchewan, he was able to help farmers keep their property, introduced many social reforms including automobile insurance and Medicare, although it was not passed until only a few weeks after Douglas resigned as Premier of Saskatchewan. While leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), with backing from the Progressive Conservatives, he was able to pressure the federal Liberals to introduce such policies as the Canada Health Act. Actor Kiefer Sutherland, star of such TV shows as 24, is Douglas' grandson, and a noted supporter of Medicare to this day.

Related Topics:
Tommy Douglas - Father of medicare - Brandon College - Stanley Knowles - Baptist - Carberry - Manitoba - Weyburn - Saskatchewan - Great Depression - Cooperative Commonwealth Federation - Automobile insurance - Medicare - New Democratic Party - Progressive Conservatives - Liberals - Canada Health Act - Kiefer Sutherland - 24

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