Father of medicare explained

Several individuals have been described as the father of medicare in Canada. Medicare is the country's publicly funded health system.

• Tommy Douglas championed public health insurance as Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and federal leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971.^[1]
• Woodrow Lloyd was the Premier of Saskatchewan when universal medicare was introduced in Saskatchewan.^[2]
• Lester B. Pearson was the Liberal Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. His government saw medicare introduced on a national basis, after his party wrote and introduced the legislation for hospital and out-of-hospital treatment, and received the support of Douglas' NDP.^[3]
• Emmett Matthew Hall was a jurist and chair of the 1964 Royal Commission on health care in Canada which recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's system of public insurance for both hospitalization and out-of-hospital medical services. In 1996, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stated that "Canadians will be forever grateful for the pivotal role that [Hall] played in bringing universal medicare to Canada. Throughout his long life, he remained medicare's most eloquent defender".^[4]
• Paul Martin Sr., Minister of National Health and Welfare from 1946 to 1957, played a central early role in the adoption of hospital insurance and is also remembered as a father of Medicare.^[5]

This list includes individuals from three major distinct and competing Canadian political traditions: Douglas and Lloyd from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, later the New Democratic Party; Hall, a Progressive Conservative; and Martin and Pearson, Liberals.

References

1. Web site: Tommy Douglas: The Father of Medicare . Canadian Health Coalition . 2012 . August 9, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120813045105/http://healthcoalition.ca/main/resources/tommy-douglas-the-father-of-medicare/ . August 13, 2012 . dead .
2. Book: John F. Conway . May 30, 2014 . The Rise of the New West: The History of a Region in Confederation . 4 . James Lorimer & Company . 280– . 978-1-4594-0626-1 . 866048035 .
3. Book: Brad Lavigne . October 11, 2013 . Building the Orange Wave: The Inside Story Behind the Historic Rise of Jack Layton and the NDP . Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Limited . 978-1-77162-018-5 . 1124467587 .
4. Web site: Emmett Hall - Canadian Father of Medicare . Canada-Heros . February 18, 2011 . August 12, 2012 . Jones, Don.
5. Northern Exposure . Henderson, David R. . Defining Ideas . June 2011 . August 12, 2012 . Hoover Institution at Stanford University . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120814175659/http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/80786 . August 14, 2012 .