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Posts by lozer244
Joined: Dec 20, 2007
Last Post: Dec 20, 2007
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lozer244   
Dec 20, 2007
Writing Feedback / Essay: "the Father of Medical Healthcare" - Tommy Douglas [4]

Please read the essay below and tell me if it is good or not...i have about 4 hours before i hand it in!!!!!!! :(

Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, known as "the Father of Medical Healthcare", was one of Canada's most charismatic politicians never to be elected as Canada's Prime Minister. He relentlessly pursued his radical ideas until they became popular and rival politicians started to claim them as their own. Douglas' amazing oratorical skills, his exceptional humor and popularity among millions of Canadians helped him introduce one of his biggest achievements; Medicare.

Douglas held many rousing and powerful and sometimes personal speeches to get his message across. This helped him get elected leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1944. The party had won in a landslide victory with 49 of 52 seats with a 53% overall. Douglas also held speeches against sending jobless men to World War II, because he considered it unfair.

When Douglas was 10 years old, he was infected in his leg and due to this, his parents had to either pay a doctor money they did not have or amputate his leg. Luckily a surgeon offered to operate for free on Tommy if his class was aloud to see him perform it. This event helped Douglas realize his dream of "universally accessible medical care", on which he gave many speeches on, and the most famous would "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. And I think it was out of this experience, not at the moment consciously, but through the years, I came to believe that health services ought not to have a price tag on them, and that people should be able to get whatever health services they require irrespective of their individual capacity to pay"š

After Saskatchewan had started on Medicare, Douglas held this motivating speech in 1970 "Saskatchewan was told that it would never get hospital insurance. Yet Saskatchewan people were the first in Canada to establish this kind of insurance, and were followed by the rest of Canada. We didn't have Medicare in those days. They said you couldn't have Medicare - it would interfere with the 'doctor-patient relationship'. But you people in this province demonstrated to Canada that it was possible to have Medicare. Now every province in Canada either has it or is in the process of setting it up."˛ This speech helped Douglas become even more popular within Saskatchewan leading to another victory as the leader of the NDP (CCF joined with Canadian Labor Congress to make NDP).

May 23 1940, during a heated debate on whether Canada should send their men to war, Douglas, who was against sending men to war, said "One year ago men could be seen riding the rods on freight trains across Canada. Today hundreds are in His Majesty's uniform. Most of us know some of these young men personally. Theses men are going to fight for a society that could not even give them a job. What do we propose to do with them when they come back on the rods? God forbid."ł Douglas thought that there should be a job for every Canadian no matter what, and sending men who could not even have any jobs to war was considered by Douglas unfair and wrong.

Also, Douglas had become a celebrity as the head of North America's first ever socialist government, and this was only possible due to his popularity. His view of every citizen of having a right to hospital care and to doctors' services was shared by millions of other Canadians, through which he became widely recognized all over Canada.

Douglas made the most of his younger years; he had become the light heavy weight champion at boxing twice in Manitoba, which was a huge boost in his popularity for the future career.

In college, Douglas belonged to a successful debating team, which had a posted victory over a debating team from Oxford University. This helped him earn more credentials in debating and hone his debating and speaking skills.

Douglas had become a popular politician among the farmers, because he had went as far as saying he would resign from the CCF if just one farmer was evicted from his land. And in 1944, Douglas created The Farm Security Act, which protected farmers from foreclosure and repossession of assets.

Finally, Douglas had a comical type personality, and was the type of person who always tried to follow his ideas no matter how radical or unpopular they were.

In 1984, when Douglas was out taking a leisurely walk, he was hit by a bus. At the hospital, Douglas still had his sense of humor and said "If you think I'm in a bad shape, you should see the bus" Douglas was sometimes disliked by other politicians because he would always try to respond in an entertaining way.

Douglas had spent most of his political Saskatchewan career trying to promote his radical ideas, so when he became a national politician, his ideas were mainstream and were being taking credit for by other politicians, like Lester B. Pearson's Liberals had taken the idea of universal healthcare and claimed it as their own.

When the CCF was elected in Saskatchewan for five terms, Douglas's government passed over 100 bills in just the first term. In the second year the CCF eliminated sales tax on foods and also reduced the provincial debt by $20 million. The CCF, with Tommy, brought electrical power to farms, built paved roads and improved medical health care, all the while being called a communist and radical.

In Conclusion, Thomas Clement (Tommy) Douglas was one of the most charismatic leaders in Canada never to elected Prime Minister. Through his amazing oratorical skills, attractive personality, strong leadership skills and his relentless pursuit of his radical ideas of free health care and many other ideas has helped Canada become a country admired by the entire world.
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