Persona

Douglas, Tommy 1904-1986

Thomas Douglas was born on October 20, 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland. To seek a better climate for their sick son the family moved to Winnipeg in 1910. They returned to Great Britain during the First World War, living there until returning to Winnipeg in 1919. Douglas worked as an apprentice printer at the Grain Trade Publishing Co. and Kingdom Press until 1924. He attended Brandon College graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1930, and then enrolled at McMaster University graduating with a Master of Arts in 1933. While enrolled at McMaster he was involved in extra curricular activities and was a gold medallist in debating, dramatics and oratory and was also prominent in boxing. He then undertook postgraduate studies in Social Sciences at the Chicago University. Ordained a Baptist minister in 1930 he moved to Weyburn, Saskatchewan where he served at Calvary Baptist Church till 1935. That same year he was elected to the House of Commons for Weyburn as Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MP and established a notable reputation as a debater.

He was re-elected in 1940, and elected as president of the Saskatchewan C.C.F. party in 1941. Douglas resigned from the House of Commons in 1944, and led his party to victory by a large majority in the provincial general election. He became Premier and Minister of Public Health on July 10, 1944 and in 1949 relinquished this portfolio to become Minister of Co-operation and Co-operative development. His government was returned with large majorities in the general elections of 1948 and 1952. While heading the Department of Public Health he directed a general expansion in all health services, including the establishment of a hospitalization plan, air ambulance, free treatment of cancer and mental illness, and a university hospital and medical school. His government applied the socialist principles of the C.C.F. by expanding previously existing public enterprises (telephones, power), and educational and welfare services, by experiments with new forms of public ownership (insurance, bus transportation, airways, clay and forest products, and sodium sulphate), and by fostering co-operative enterprise, the conservation of natural resources and collective bargaining.

A gifted orator, Douglas popularized the concept of the welfare state, supported by an economy characterized by the co-existence of private, co-operative and public ownership. In 1961 Douglas resigned as Premier to lead the federal New Democratic Party. He was defeated in the 1962 federal election in large part due to the backlash against the Saskatchewan government's introduction of Medicare. Winning a seat in a by-election, Douglas went on to serve as leader of the N.D.P. until 1971 and became the party's Energy critic until his retirement in 1979. He was made Companion of the Order of Canada in 1980. Tommy Douglas died in Ottawa, Ontario in 1986.