Tommy Douglas

Imagine if you were very sick and you could not afford medicine. Canadians don’t have to worry about that because of one man. Most Canadians think of him as a hero. I know I do. Tommy Douglas was born in Scotland and came to Wayborn, Saskatchewan, just in time for the Great Depression. He stayed for the time of the Depression only to leave his mark in Canadian history.

Tommy Douglas

October 20th 1904 was the day that this amazing man was born. In 1910 his mother his sister and he moved to Winnipeg. At the time Tommy Douglas was still a student minister when he got asked to go to the Calvary Baptist Church on a trial basis; Tommy Douglas was not a real minister yet but the congregation wanted to see them and see if he is what they wanted. One day they finally accepted him and he became the minister of the Baptist church. Four years after that Tommy Douglas and his Best friend Stanly Knowls both became politicians of the CCF\NDP party of Canada!!!!!!

Tommy and his wife Irma owned a small a apartment on Second Avenue. There, Tommy continued with his work as a minister at the church. Tommy ran for the Saskatchewan legislature in the elections of 1934 but Tommy did not win the elections. When Tommy was wondering what move to make next he got news from the church saying that he had to decide between politics or the ministry. It was a hard decision for Tommy Douglas but he chose politics.

Tommy Douglas ran again in the 1935 Federal Election and when he did, he became one of the first CCF members to sit in the House of Commons. Tommy Douglas was shaving when the results came in and his party won over 40 seats out of 52!!! After that he stayed prime Minister for the next 17 years.

Tommy Douglas

Tommy Douglas is my hero because in those 17 years that he was in charge of Saskatchewan and the NDP party, he did lots of really good things. On of them made lots of people think of him as a hero, even me. The thing that made so many people look up to him was that he decided to crate the free health care that we have today in Canada. So now we Canadians can have fun and play outside and if we get hurt we won’t have to pay a big health care fee.