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Tommy Douglas grew up on the prairies
during the roaring twenties and the onset of the Great
Depression. As a theology student he earned extra money
while attending Brandon College, giving sermons on
Sunday at $15 a week. His sermons focused in on social
policy and helping those who needed help in society. He
was drawn to the CCF when it was formed and ran in the
Federal election in 1935 and was one of seven CCF MP's
sent to Ottawa.
In 1942 Douglas was
elected leader of the provincial CCF party n
Saskatchewan and on June 15th 1944, his party won 47 of
53 seats in Saskatchewan and he became the Premier of
the Province. This made Tommy Douglas the first elected
leader of a socialist party anywhere in Canada or the
U.S. He went to work quickly by forming the Saskatchewan
Power Corporation which pushed power lines to most rural
communities and isolated farms in the province. He also
passed many human rights bills, nationalized many
services, unionize the public service but most
importantly of all passed legislation which provided
free hospital care to the people of Saskatchewan. This
action was to lead to universal Medicare in the province
in 1961 which would serve as the model for the other
provinces and become a corner stone of Canadian society.
The responsible financial management of
Saskatchewan's budgets by the CCF, reduced the
provincial deficit left by the previous government and
actually started to produce yearly surpluses thus
countering the oppositions predictions that all of the
CCF's socialist programs would ruin the province.
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