Prairie Giant Tommy Douglas
Prairie Giant is a dramatization of the life story of Tommy Douglas. It was published after Canadians voted in a CBC poll (2006) that Tommy Douglas was the greatest Canadian.
His courage was unwavering, and his achievements were legendary. The list of firsts among his policies at the end of the film is an eye-opener, even for those, like myself, who thought they knew quite a lot about Tommy Douglas.
His political life began in the Dirty Thirties in the town of Weyburn. He died in Ottawa aged 81, after 5 consecutive mandates as CCF, Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Premier of Saskatchewan and 17 years as federal leader of the NDP, a party formed when the CCF joined with labour unions.
In many ways, the apparently insignificant province of Saskatchewan is Canada. So many of the ideas we have come to associate with our historic liberal democratic and egalitarian ideals came from there: universal medicare, old age pensions, co-ops, government auto insurance, government support for the arts, and much more.
As for the policies that expressed these ideas, most were envisioned first by the remarkable politician Tommy Douglas. A Baptist minister, he was galvanized into running for office by his times: the terrible hardships suffered by farmers during the dirty thirties, and then being a helpless witness to the brutal violence practiced on coal miners in Estevan when in 1931 they went on strike to demand a living wage.
When Douglas saw how the RCMP stood by and watched the strikers beaten or worse, he took up an invitation to run for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the CCF. With the vigorous support of his wife Irma, he succeeded against astonishing odds, not only to get elected, but to carry out the revolutionary policies he had promised to the people of Saskatchewan.
To do so, he had to do battle with Boston bankers, federal and provincial Liberals, and even the doctors of Saskatchewan, who went on strike when Medicare was passed, and did their best to turn the tide of public opinion against the CCF and their "communist" policies.
For anyone who is interested in how Canada has evolved into the country we know today, this is a film well worth watching: for the excitement and drama, as well as the education in our history.
Both in his life and following his death in 1986, Tommy Douglas was heaped with honours. IIn his original home riding of Weyburn, a statue was unveiled in 2010. Schools, stamps, and art centres are among the places named after him. In our region, the public library in Burnaby bears his name. His legacy continues to be discussed among Canadians.