Tommy Douglas

Premier of Saskatchewan

Douglas was an active Member of Parliament, but he also maintained an interest in provincial politics and became the leader of the Saskatchewan CCF in 1942. He led the CCF to power in the June 15, 1944 provincial election, taking 47 of 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

Related Topics:
Saskatchewan CCF - 1942 - June 15 - 1944 provincial election - Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

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As World War II continued through Douglas's first term as premier, the Government of Canada continued its policy of discrimination against Japanese Canadians. In addition to the Japanese Canadian internment, the government deported almost 4,000 Japanese immigrants and Canadians of Japanese descent back to war-torn Japan. In 1945, in response to a personal letter written to him, Douglas revealed that he did not object to the deportation of those Japanese Canadians who spoke their native tongue. Douglas was a lifelong defender of civil liberties and would later deplore the way that the Japanese Canadians had been treated. The 1945 letter revealing his feelings towards Japanese Canadians remains an inexplicable aberration.

Related Topics:
World War II - Government of Canada - Japanese Canadian - Japanese Canadian internment - Japan - 1945

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Douglas and the Saskatchewan CCF then won five straight majority victories. Most of his government's pioneering innovations came about during its first term, including:

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• the creation of the 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;
• a program to offer free hospital care to all citizens—the first in Canada.
• legislation that outlawed discrimination based on gender and race (this preceded the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations by 18 months).

Through careful financial management, the Douglas government slowly paid off the huge debt left by the previous Liberal government, and created a budget surplus for the Saskatchewan government. This paved the way for Douglas's most notable achievement, the introduction of universal medicare legislation in 1961.

Related Topics:
Debt - Liberal - Surplus - Universal medicare - 1961

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Medicare

Douglas's number one concern was the creation of Medicare. Saskatchewan became the centre of a hard-fought struggle between the government, the North American medical establishment, and the province's physicians, who brought things to a head with the doctors' strike. The doctors believed their best interests were not being met, and they feared a significant loss of income. Despite these setbacks, Douglas managed to resolve the strike, clearing the way for Medicare in Saskatchewan. Many had doubted the feasibilty of Medicare, but Douglas showed Canada how it could work—that the doctors could be brought onside, and that through careful financial planning, enough money could be set aside to set up a universal system. Proving it was possible on the provincial scale cleared the way for a national Medicare program.

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While Douglas is often described as the "father of medicare" in Canada, the Saskatchewan program was finally 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.

Related Topics:
Father of medicare - Woodrow Lloyd - 1962 - Lester Pearson - 1967

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