Tommy Douglas Quote

Tommy Douglas was a visionary.

Like all humans, he had flaws.

As a Canadian politician he was courageous. He was truly a democratic socialist. He stood up against powerful interests in support of common people. He is the father of socialized medical services in Canada. Millions owe their good health to him. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions owe their longevity to him.

Tommy Douglas

Here is a cautionary quote from Tommy Douglas,

“Once more, let me remind you what fascism is. It need not wear a brown shirt, or a green shirt — it may even wear a dress shirt.

“Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.”

When I was in high school in the 1960s I had two social/political hopes and one fear.

One hope was that in Canada, discrimination against homosexual people would be ended and that homosexual people would have full acceptance in society. (At that time we weren’t thinking LGBTQ2S+.)

The second was that Canada would end the creation of hundreds of thousands of criminals who simply used cannabis.

I am happy that both of those have largely come to pass during my lifetime. (There will always be bigots, so although legally there is not discrimination based on sexual orientation some discrimination remains.)

My fear, some sixty years ago was that the US would become a fascist state that would subjugate Canada.

That fear remains.