Thomas Clement Douglas PC CC SOM (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971.

Many years later, Douglas told an interviewer, "I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside.

[6] From a rooftop vantage point on Main Street, he witnessed the police charging the strikers with clubs and guns, and a streetcar being overturned and set on fire.

He worked as a soap boy in a barber shop, rubbing lather into tough whiskers, then dropped out of high school at 13 after landing a job in a cork factory.

The owner offered to pay Douglas's way through night school so that he could learn Portuguese and Spanish, languages that would enable him to become a cork buyer.

He served a five-year apprenticeship and worked as a Linotype operator finally acquiring his journeyman's papers, but decided to return to school to pursue his ambition to become an ordained minister.

Douglas reported later that he preached sermons advocating social reform and helping the poor: "[T]he Bible is like a bull fiddle ... you can play almost any tune you want on it."

[11] He also earned money delivering entertaining monologues and poetry recitations at church suppers and service club meetings for five dollars a performance.

[17] By the time Douglas took office in 1944, many people questioned eugenics due to Nazi Germany's embrace of it in its effort to create a "master race".

He never completed his PhD thesis but was deeply disturbed by his field work in the Depression-era "jungles" or hobo camps where about 75,000 transients sheltered in lean-tos venturing out by day to beg or to steal.

"[23] Douglas was equally disturbed that members of the Socialist Party sat around quoting Marx and Lenin, waiting for a revolution while refusing to help the destitute.

"[24] Two months after Douglas graduated from Brandon College, he married Irma Dempsey, and the two moved to the town of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where he became an ordained minister at the Calvary Baptist Church.

[29]Douglas and Coldwell's position was eventually adopted by the CCF National Council, but they also did not admonish Woodsworth's pacifist stand, and allowed him to put it forward in the House.

[30] Woodsworth had suffered a stroke earlier in the year and he needed someone to hold his notes, and Douglas still held him in very high regard, and dutifully assisted his leader.

[32] He led the CCF to power in 15 June[33] 1944 provincial election, winning 47 of 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, and thus forming the first social democratic government in not only Canada but all of North America.

Ten years later, Premier Jean Lesage of Quebec joined with Douglas at a First Ministers' Conference in July 1960 in advocating for a constitutional bill of rights.

The medical establishment claimed that Douglas would import foreign doctors to make his plan work and used racist images to try to scare the public.

Douglas stepped down as premier and as a member of the legislature the previous year, to lead the newly formed federal successor to the CCF, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP).

Another Saskatchewan politician, newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, decreed in 1958 that any province seeking to introduce a hospital plan would receive 50 cents on the dollar from the federal government.

The adoption of public health care across Canada ended up being the work of three men with diverse political ideals – Douglas of the CCF, Diefenbaker of the Progressive Conservatives, and Pearson of the Liberals.

[citation needed] The 1958 Canadian general election was a disaster for the CCF;[38] its caucus was reduced to eight, and party leader M. J. Coldwell lost his own seat.

[45][46] Douglas resigned from provincial politics and sought election to the House of Commons in the riding of Regina City in 1962, but was defeated by Ken More.

[50] The act, enacted previously only for wartime purposes, imposed extreme limitations on civil liberties, and gave the police and military vastly expanded powers for arresting and detaining suspects, usually with little to no evidence required.

[50] Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield went so far as to say "Quite frankly, I've admired Tommy Douglas and David Lewis, and those fellows in the NDP for having the courage to vote against that, although they took a lot of abuse at the time ...

[55] In 1985, he was appointed to the Saskatchewan Order of Merit[56] and Brandon University created a students' union building in honour of Douglas and his old friend, Stanley Knowles.

[57] In June 1984, Douglas was injured when he was struck by a bus, but he quickly recovered and on his 80th birthday he claimed to The Globe and Mail that he usually walked up to five miles a day.

The statue The Greatest Canadian, created by Lea Vivot, was erected in his hometown of Weyburn in September 2010 and unveiled by his grandson Kiefer Sutherland.

[68] Internationally the former National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, was renamed the Tommy Douglas Center after its purchase by the Amalgamated Transit Union in 2014.

In response, the CBC consulted a "third party historian" to review the film and pulled it from future broadcasts, including halting all home and educational sales.

Douglas was mentioned in the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, which compared the health care system in the United States with that of Canada and other countries.