Canada’s health care system is considered by many to be its single-most defining national characteristic and Tommy Douglas is who Canadians have to thank for it. Prior to Douglas’ universal health care system, it was not uncommon for Canadians to get sick and only be able to turn to their family, neighbors, or church. Trained doctors mainly resided in big cities, and they were too expensive for most people. Yet how the universal health care system came about, the leading force behind it, might be one of the most unlikely stories coming from a person who comes from an unlikely place.
Tommy once served as a teaching project for a university class on surgery.
At the age of six, little Tommy had managed to cut his right knee, and although the wound got bandaged up, it would go on to cause serious health problems for him. Eventually little Tommy would complain about constant knee pain. When his parents took him to see some doctors, it was suggested that little Tommy’s leg would need to be amputated. However, one orthopedic surgeon offered to operate on little Tommy’s knee is his parents allowed their son to be used as a teaching project. If not, little Tommy was certain to have his leg amputated.
This early childhood experience, having to accept that your leg might get cut off and that you are going to live the rest of your life on crutches, stuck with little Tommy for the rest of his life, and it helped him realize how important it was to have accessible health care services. As an adult, Douglas would come to view the circumstances of his situation demonstrated the cruelty that existed, if a person could afford treatment, then they could obtain it but those unable to afford treatment were left to hope to become teaching aids.
A Scot by the name of Tommy Douglas arrives to Winnipeg, Canada.
A teenaged Tommy Douglas, who had arrived in Winnipeg, Canada with his mother and two sisters from Glasgow, Scotland, recalled being shocked at what he was seeing. Winnipeg’s homeless population was comprised of unemployed veterans who had no means to pursue an education to become employable, and others had significant struggles with their health. Douglas became a youth minister, and he focused on the city’s marginalized populations.
As a youth minister, Douglas came across parents who dressed their children in flour sacks because they could not afford anything more. While working with impoverished boys, he realized the true power of socialization and one’s environment. What stuck out about the impoverished boys he mentored was that they knew how to pick locks, break and enter into places without anyone ever noticing, and fight, but they were unfamiliar with the child’s concept of play. It was one of the moments that Douglas described as being his first encounter with how the work he was doing at the time was treating symptoms, not the cause.
Douglas later began PhD studies at the University of Chicago, where he had the opportunity to immerse himself in the lives of impoverished Chicagoans. He came across youths who had previously been bank clerks, medical students, and even law students, but many had been negatively affected by a lack of opportunity, medical care, and any chance at a decent life.
Upon returning to Saskatchewan and advocating for greater access to health care services, Douglas was labelled a dangerous radical and the Saskatchewan’s provincial police (RCMP) opened a file on the former Minister that became thicker than the New Testament.
The Douglas Era
Prior to Canada implementing a health insurance system, Germany had adopted its system in 1883, twelve years after becoming a federation of principalities, and the British Government introduced their own version in 1912. The initial push for a universal health care system came after World War 1 when so many boys and men returned from the war experience and needed support. Then came the Great Depression, and 20% of Canada’s labour force was unemployed. Then droughts and masses of insects devoured a majority of crops, but southern Saskatchewan was among the hardest hit.
Once the living costs began exceeding wages, and without any employment insurance, thousands of Winnipeg workers decided to walk off the job, and the entire city came to a standstill. To combat the protest, governments decided to introduce new laws that allowed the deportation of “enemy aliens”, meant to target the protestors.
On June 21, 1919, also known as Bloody Saturday, police opened fire into a crowd of protestors who had overturned a streetcar. But the story that dominated the news was that the city’s local hero and former Methodist minister was thrown in jail. It marked a turning point for the city’s protest, and it also changed the trajectory of Douglas’ life.
Premier Douglas took Saskatchewan from worst to best.
When Douglas was voted in as the leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1944, nobody imagined that his government would go on to win five straight majority decisions until 1960. In his first 16 months, Douglas created several new departments including Social Welfare, Labour, and Co-Operation.
To bring electricity to more rural communities, Douglas’ created a publicly owned company known as the Saskatchewan Power Corporation. Saskatchewan also became the first to introduce a publicly owned car insurance program—$20 cheaper than competition in the private sector. And other Crown corporations were also created that improved the standard of living in Saskatchewan.
What may be most significant of all was that Douglas also passed Canada’s first Bill of Rights, which prohibited discrimination based on race, colour, religion, arbitrary detention, rights to elections, employment, education and property. Although much of this was driven by Douglas, it was made possible by money smart Minister Clarence Fines who made sure there was enough money to go around for everything, and even to pay down inherited debt. However, all of Douglas’ success with Saskatchewan began scaring Ottawa, which tried calling in loans and threatening to disallow Saskatchewan legislation. To counter, Douglas went on the radio, resulting in mass mail and protests that were enough to get Ottawa to back off.
Lesser known is that the path to a publicly funded health insurance system was gradual and it started by improving access to medical care in more remote areas. There was the creation of an air ambulance service, then free medical care was provided for single mothers, widows, and old people, as well as those with venereal disease, tuberculosis, psychiatric illnesses, and cancer. Thirty hospitals were renovated and built, and by 1954 the province had gone from having the fewest hospital beds per capita to having the most. Canadians outside the province became jealous.
Life in Saskatchewan had managed to go from one of the worst to one of the best, with an emphasis on human well-being and human welfare. There was the modernization of new roads, waterways, and sewers. Not only were Douglas’ policies and actions starting to catch on across Canada, but even the American press was starting to jump on the Douglas bandwagon. One of the most recognizable names was Time magazine, which emphasized the province’s balanced budget alongside a comprehensive welfare system that matched places like Sweden, Uruguay, and New Zealand.
Tommy Douglas was not always viewed favorably by the majority of Canadians.
Tommy Douglas, the leading force behind Canada’s health care system, was viewed by many as a go-getter, but there were times where he was considered as an immigrant with too much attitude for his own good. Much of the hate that was directed towards Douglas likely stemmed from his convictions, rooted in the belief of an individual’s duty to help the less fortunate, and for his famous oratorical skills.
Nobody could believe that a public health care system was possible, apart for Douglas. If it was not for Douglas having to serve as a teaching project to be able to obtain a knee operation and some of his later-life experience, it is likely that the health care system many Canadians take for granted would never have existed.
What The Land Without A Master Narrative series illustrates is that the society that we live in today was created by different people from all walks of life, some Indigenous to Canada, others that started elsewhere. That narratives will continue to be written, whether by authors who share similarities or are completely different from one another. And the story will only be getting better, because all writers all welcome.
