It dramatizes and fictionalizes the life and career of Tommy Douglas, the Canadian politician who oversaw the legislation of Canada's first public healthcare program as Premier of Saskatchewan.
On March 16, 2006, Saskatoon StarPhoenix political columnist Randy Burton wrote, "It was wonderful television but abysmal history.... On almost every score, scriptwriter Bruce Smith got Gardiner wrong.
"[1] On March 17, 2006, Regina Leader-Post political columnist Murray Mandryk stated, "a project like this has to be some level of historical accuracy and it is in the script itself where the movie fails.
The most egregious example of this was clearly the Estevan riot ... Gardiner was not the premier of the day and he didn't give a province-wide radio address attacking the strikers as communists and undesirable immigrants."
"[3] On June 12, 2006, CBC Executive Vice-President Richard Stursberg, stated, "I regret the mischaracterization of James Garfield Gardiner in the mini-series 'Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story' that we aired".