Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare, former premier of Saskatchewan, and former leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) is one of my heroes.

Once a month, on the fourth Friday, I host a virtual movie night. Next Friday (February 25) at 7 p.m., I will be showing the NFB film, Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame, directed by Elise Swerhone.

The showing of the film will be followed by a panel discussion that will include my favourite member of Parliament, Don Davies, who represents Vancouver Kingsway. To register for this incredible event, click here.

When Tommy was elected premier of Saskatchewan in 1944, he brought the forerunner of the NDP, the Co-operative Commonwealth Foundation (CCF), to power. It was the first time the CCF had ever been elected to office anywhere in North America.

Capitalists all over the continent began trembling in their boots. Among their many allegations, they claimed that Tommy, as he was a socialist, would be a terrible manager of the province’s finances. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

When Tommy was elected, he inherited from the defeated Saskatchewan Liberal party a treasury that was utterly empty. In fact, given the province’s accumulated debts amassed on the Liberals’ watch under then premier William Patterson, the province was virtually bankrupt.

Ottawa urged Tommy to do what no other province had ever done in Canada’s history—file for bankruptcy. Tommy, a fiscal conservative, refused and actually paid off the entire provincial debt before introducing in Saskatchewan the medical system we now so often take for granted: Medicare.

Inspired by Tommy’s vision, the federal government passed the Medical Care Act in 1966, adopting Medicare across Canada. The days of having to bring your credit card to your doctor’s visit ended.

It is much more though than just fiscal conservatism and his success at introducing socialized medicine that attract me so much to Tommy. As both a politician with a social conscience and an ordained Baptist minister, he demonstrated that there is very little, if any, difference between religions at their foundations and socialism. They differ in one regard only, that one believes in a god and the other does not. They both believe in altruism, caring, and sharing.

In 1961, the CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the NDP. Tommy was then elected as the NDP’s first leader at its founding convention.

By then, the RCMP had become so terrified of Tommy that they opened a file on him, reportedly shadowing him for more than three decades. Many years after Tommy’s death, when the media discovered the existence of this RCMP file, they applied to court for a copy of it. The Canadian Press was finally able to obtain a copy of the nine-volume dossier from Library and Archives Canada, although parts of the file were withheld for security reasons and hundreds of pages conveniently remain completely sealed.

I really do hope you will be able to join me on Friday, February 25 at 7 p.m. for a most interesting evening. I have seen the movie. It’s great. I have heard Don Davies speak many times before. He’s great. Let’s find out together from Don what we can each do to bring a little bit of Tommy into today’s society.

You can register here.

Daily atmospheric CO₂[Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (Feb. 16, 2022): 419.18 ppm

One year ago (Feb. 16, 2021): 416.10 ppm