What would you do if you were very sick and could not afford medicine? In Canada we do not have to worry about that because of a man, a hero, the greatest Canadian. Tommy Douglas was born in Scotland and came to Wayborn, Saskatchewan, just in time for the Great Depression. He stayed for the duration of the depression only to leave his mark in Canadian history!
October 20th 1904 was the date this remarkable man was brought into this world. In 1910 his sister his mother and he moved to Winnipeg. Tommy Douglas was still a student minister when he was asked to go to the Calvary Baptist Church on a trial basis; he was not yet a real minister but the congregation wanted to look at him and see if he was what they wanted. Finally they accepted him and he became the minister of the Baptist church. About four years later Tommy Clement Douglas and his best friend, Stanly Knowls, both became politicians for the CCF\NDP party of Canada!
Tommy and his wife Irma owned a small apartment on Second Avenue. There, Tommy continued his work as a minister at the church. Tommy ran for the Saskatchewan legislature in the elections of 1934 but failed to win. While he was wondering what move to make next, he received news from the church that he had to decide between politics or the ministry. It was a hard decision but Tommy Douglas decided on politics.
Tommy Douglas ran again in the 1935 Federal Election, and as he did he became one of the first CCF members to sit in the House of Commons. He was shaving when the results came in that his party had won over 40 seats out of 52. He stayed prime Minister for the next 17 years.
Tommy Clement Douglas is my hero because, in the 17 years he was in charge of Saskatchuwan and the NDP party, he did many things. The one thing that made me envy him the most was that he decided to create free health care in Canada, so Canadians can have fun and play as much as they want without having to worry about getting hurt and having to pay a big health care fee!
Page created on 9/5/2006 12:00:00 AM
Last edited 9/5/2006 12:00:00 AM