THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER APRIL, 1971 A SALUTE TO A GREAT CANADIAN — AND HUMANITARIAN With the federal New Dem-. ocratic Party choosing a new parliamentary leader, Tommy Douglas steps out of the spotlight into the realm of legend. No other politician in Canada in Douglas’s 35 years of political action has been so right so many times. Though 66, he has the vigor of youth and ideas to match. He hardly fits the mold of intrepid hero. Yet the Douglas form, a pocket-sized 5-foot-6, towers when he speaks out. And he has made a career of speaking out for any cause that is just, though often not popular. Y Take any contentious issue of the past 30 years and you'll find Tommy Douglas’s words outspoken. and later vin- dicated. Long before foreign domination of the economy was usurped as _ political timber by those who had done the selling out, he was spelling out the issue and advocating the answer. “Decisions in Canadian branch plants are made on the basis of what is good for the parent firm, not what is good for Canada’s economy,” he said in 1963 in a speech often plagiarized. ‘‘Foreign in- vestment is not concentrated in industries which create jobs for Canadians, but in high- capital, low-labor-content in- dustries. This tends:to make us hewers of wood and drawers of water.” _ GREAT CAMPAIGNER As early as 1961 he was campaigning for a department of consumer affairs on the federal level, long before it became a reality. He bore the insults of callous know- nothings who berated him for attacking the Vietnam war. - And now they’re eating their words and mouthing his. He had the record to talk from, too. Tommy and the Co- operative © Commonwealth Federation made the human dimension their guidepost during two decades of CCF government in Saskatchewan. . For 20 years he was the province’s premier. There were _ hospital- insurance plans, farm-credit aids, co-operative enterprises, progressive labor laws, government owned industries and state-run auto insurance in Saskatchewan long before such To Weekend magazine he said, ‘‘It is possible to control the economy without owning the industries.” One can forget his remark- able political achievements while honoring Tommy’s philosophy. But it would be unfair. He steadily built the federal arty to a position of true political clout before turning over the leader’s job because he just couldn’t face the rigorous campaign of another federal election. : “Scrappy” waS a favorite tag the press put on him. It fit. steps were conceived any- where else in the country. Could Compromise And though Tommy always stuck to his word, the Scottish- born former Baptist preacher knew when he. could com- promise and change. He had said in 1948, while premier of Saskatchewan, that govern- ments should pursue five broad fields of public ownership. They were utilities, the development and distribution of natural gas, transportation and communications like bus lines and telephones, ‘‘some’’ natural resources and social welfare, such as insurance. In 1961 he told Maclean’s magazine that where once he would have added banks and insurance. companies, he no longer thought outright owner- ship was necessary. _ HARD WORKER _ Nothing came easily to Tommy in life. He could empathize with the vast numbers who love him because he was one of them. He was probably the only premier with a union card. Linotype Operator The son of an iron moulder, Tommy was born Oct. 20, 1904, in Falkirk, Scotland. The Douglas family moved to Winnipeg in 1910 but returned to Scotland during the First World War. His father had enlisted, and Tommy supported the family working in a factory. The Douglases returned to Winnipeg as the war ended, and Tommy got a job as a linotype operator with the Winnipeg Free Press. Early events can mark great men, and Tommy was to learn soon in life the facts of poverty. A terrible bone marrow disease struck him as a youngster, and 12-year-old Tommy could not walk to school he was in such pain. The best medical care was out of the question for the poor, but a doctor doing charity work took in his case. As a grown man, he recalled, it’s ‘the only reason I can walk today.’” Later he earned a bachelor of arts degree at Brandon (Man.) College and a master of arts at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. While studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, he faced the choice of teaching there or trying politics back home. That one choice changed the face of Canadian political events. Won First Term His first attempt at public office, in the 1934 provincial elections in Saskatchewan, was unsuccesssful. But a year later he won his first term in the federal Parliament at 31 and was re-elected in 1940. He resigned his federal seat in 1944 to take over as leader of the new Co-operative Com- monwealth Federation in Saskatchewan, and that same year the farmer-labor movement won power and 47 of 52 seats. Always a friend of labor, Tommy introduced bargaining rights for civil servants and legislated the 44-hour week, a breakthrough for working men and women at the time. Later he vociferously defended the right of federal employees to bargain and strike. “No government has the , right,” he said in 1965, “to turn | its employees into second-class citizens . . . by denying them the advantages enjoyed by employees in industry.” 1948 Election The CCF lost 14 seats in the 1948 provincial election, but it held power and in subsequent elections increased its strength, winning in 1952 the biggest popular vote in Saskatchewan history. To pay for the unprecedented welfare programs he created for his people, he increased royalties from resource ex- ploiters. “‘Social security costs money,’’ said the CCF premier in 1952. “‘But in our province T. C. "TOMMY" DOUGLAS those who are depleting and exploiting the resources of the province are the ones who pay for it. They’re best able to pay.” While organized labor and long-time CCF leaders were forming the New Democratic Party in 1961, the logical choice for leader was either David Lewis or Tommy. Mr. Lewis himself stepped aside for the prairie radical, though Tommy eschewed a draft movement by saying he served best ‘‘where I am.’’ Still, the party prevailed. The Saskatchewan CCF released him, and he became national NDP leader. National Issues _Immediately he began ar- ticulating national issues and was an early advocate of new roles in confederation for Quebec. Typically, he raised the first warnings of the gathering storm in French- Canada. “We had better do something about the fact confederation is not working equally well for all people in ica ae Tommy in 1961. n one election after anoth he led the NDP to mere shares of the popular vote. He was leader when the: national NDP won more than a million votes in 1962 for the first time, a figure of nation- wide importance. He accused the Pearson Government in 1967 of “timidity and am- bivalence’”’ on Vietnam. He called the Auto Pact a $50-million-a-year ‘‘handout to manufacturets.”’ (In 1970 it was revealed that excise duties of more than $60 million owed by the big car makers had been written off.) Pearson Liberals He relentlessly went after the Pearson Liberals on economic independence. “The ~ prime minister sings ‘O, ~ Canada We Stand on Guard for Thee’ at the front door while > out the back door he sells our © resources,” Tommy charged. “y Those privileged to know the - private man find him gentle 74 and warm, with a sensitive > personality and bountiful sems€ 44 of humor. He makes a point with a joke whenever he cam. ~ Our sexual mores, he omee — said, ‘“‘are only slightly less | hypocritical than the British ~ . in the Victorian Age. Thomas Clement Dougia suggested his own epitaph ® re interview in 1961, and it W@ ypically humble, typiea¥z Tommy. “He liked people: =