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Tommy Douglas - sabatooch - 09-30-2004

Hi, has anyone ever done any work on Tommy Douglas- leader of CCF/NDP party and father of medicare. If so, how would you characterize his influence on Canada? Why, through what Tommy did in the past, has Canada benefitted today? Why has politics benefitted thru the impact of Tommy Douglas? Any help would be great- opinions, facts, essays, etc- just looking for a variety of ideas that I can tie together in a paper in a Canadian History course. Thanks again folks

Re: Tommy Douglas - Spycouple - 09-30-2004

sabatooch Wrote:Hi, has anyone ever done any work on Tommy Douglas- leader of CCF/NDP party and father of medicare. If so, how would you characterize his influence on Canada? Why, through what Tommy did in the past, has Canada benefitted today? Why has politics benefitted thru the impact of Tommy Douglas? Any help would be great- opinions, facts, essays, etc- just looking for a variety of ideas that I can tie together in a paper in a Canadian History course. Thanks again folks

Kiefer Sutherland (Douglas' grandson) = benefit to Canada???

(this cultural debate can only continue for the next 24 hours)

Wink



seriously though...

the grassroots populist movement of the left-wing CCF/NDP provided a model for political action which has (unfortunately IMO) been appropriated with great success by the conservative right since approximately 1968. specifically, cultural issues such as "Canadian identity" (i.e. we're a little more socialist than our neighbours down south) as well as "alienation of the western provinces" (i.e. where the CCF gained its political power base) essentially were the drivers for what has become a major economic issue (i.e. public vs. private medical care). Even today, this economic policy is often discussed in terms of culture and how it is part of what makes Canadian society different from American society.

While the Reform party would later adopt a similar grassroots model of political action (again based on the cultural issue of western alienation) but with a conservative economic agenda, what is more significant is how similar developments have taken shape south of the border through the neo-conservative movement. A controversial, but very intriguing, argument of late is that conservatives since '68 (the year of the "Great Backlash") have been using grassroots populism and divisive cultural issues (abortion, stem-cell research, gay marriage) to gain support in areas that traditionally have voted Democrat, as the "Dems" are usually considered to be the party of the working class population. Therefore, while the Repulicans present themselves as being the party that protects the values and interests of small-town America, their economic policies in office do just the opposite, eg. supporting corporate giants such as Walmart despite potential effects to small town economies (so the argument goes).

How this relates to the CCF is that its grassroots model has been flipped on its head, shifting from a left-wing socialist movement to a right-wing conservative movement. While the Reform Party's alliance with the fiscally conservative but socially progressive Tories may have slowed this trend in Canada, it still seems to be a strong cultural-political movement in the U.S., to the chagrin of many!!! (e.g Dubya is viewed as more in touch with common Americans than the elitist Kerry, even though they're both Ivy League and come from wealthy and well-connected families)

This arguement regarding the U.S. political scene can be found in the latest book by University of Chicago prof Thomas Frank, called What's the Matter with Kansas?. Here's an excerpt:

Quote:Welcome to the Great Backlash, a style of conservatism that is anything but complacent. Whereas earlier forms of conservatism emphasized fiscal sobriety, the backlash mobilizes voters with explosive social issues-- summoning public outrage over everything from busing to un-Christian art-- which it then marries to pro-business economic policies. Cultural anger is marshaled to achieve economic ends...

In fact, backlash leaders systematically downplay the politics of economics. The movement's basic premise is that culture outweighs economics as a matter of public concern-- that Values Matter Most, as one backlask book title has it. On these grounds it rallies citizens who would once have been reliable partisans of the New Deal to the standard of conservatism. Old fashioned values may count when conservatives appear on the stump, but once conservatives are in office the only old-fashioned situation they care to revive is the regimen of low wages and lax regulations. Over the last three decades the have smashed the welfare state, reduced the tax burden on corporations and the wealthy, and generally facilitated the country's return to a nineteenth-century pattern of wealth distribution. Thus the primary contradiction of the backlash: It is a working class movement that has done incalculable, historic harm to working-class people. (Frank 2004)

Here's a link to an interview with Frank with Bill Moyers on the PBS program NOW. http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/frank.html

This stuff does get away from the directly Canadian topic of Tommy Douglas and the CCF/NDP, but since we're always defining our culture in response to American culture, it may be an angle you may want to work with.

Hope that helps,


jf

(btw, i'm helping teach a cultural studies course and the above material happens to be a focus of this week's discussion, in case you're wondering where the hell all that came from ConfusedhockSmile FUN STUFF!!! FUN STUFF!!!

Re: Tommy Douglas - Stephen Dame - 09-30-2004

sabatooch Wrote:Hi, has anyone ever done any work on Tommy Douglas- leader of CCF/NDP party and father of medicare. If so, how would you characterize his influence on Canada?

First, lemme say that Walter Stewart's biography is probably the best Douglas resource you'll find anywhere, and Will Klimicka's academic work (Policy Options, Canadian Journal of Political Science) has some great Douglas stuff.

Brief answers:

Tommy Douglas's influence stems not so much from his policies, but from his politics. He shaped the social democratic left in Canada and fought, extremely hard, to make it moderate, practical and electable... he had to fight the communists, labour radicals and ideologues within his own party before he could even think about medicare. He introduce a new political dialogue to the country, and made it possible for leftist ideas to flurish at a time when every progressive was suspected by the establishment to be in Stalin's back pocket.

He was so successful, that the centre of Canadian politics shifted to the left, and the ever-aware Liberals adopted many of the CCF/NDP polices in order to occupy the moderate middle ground in Canadian politics (sixty years later... they're still there)


[quote]Why, through what Tommy did in the past, has Canada benefitted today?[\quote]

See above. Canadian social policy and electoral politics were forever changed when Tommy brought progressive ideas into the main stream. J.S. Woodsworth, the Progressives and even the Social Credit movement had not been able to create a viable leftist model. Tommy made it work, he proved you could have such a thing as "democratic socialism" (In social services anyway... Tommy was very Conservative in everything else) He provided Canada with a social conscience and value system that most Canadians still cling to as inherit, as uniquely Candian.

Medicare is his most tangible legacy, however I think he'd be most proud to know two things: #1) That citizens can now stand up to big government, to elite interests and to big business under a legitimate, established, progressive political party. And #2) Even though the NDP, and probably never will hold power federally, the party has become a Provincial level powerhouse and it's influence on Candian politics and Canadian values over the past four decades has been incredible.

Re: Tommy Douglas - Spycouple - 09-30-2004

nice work! there some good background materials going on there.

I've always found the similarities of the CCP-Reform movements (though from opposite sides of the political spectrum) interesting, but wonder if there's a lasting Reform legacy similar to the CCP's Medicare.

I suppose that we do have regional bloc voting as a common aspect of national elections now (or at least for the time being) which was influenced by Reform's power in the west, yet that may have been just as much a reaction to the Mulroney governments.

bloomin' politics, such a distraction!

jf

Re: Tommy Douglas - Stephen Dame - 09-30-2004

Spycouple Wrote:nice work! there some good background materials going on there.

I've always found the similarities of the CCP-Reform movements

I think you mean CCF... although those ol' CCP guys sure could play hockey! Smile

Re: Tommy Douglas - Spycouple - 09-30-2004

Quote:I think you mean CCF... although those ol' CCP guys sure could play hockey! Smile

Ha Ha Ha !!! Holy Marxist slip!

I'll have to go back and reedit that first post. Don't want to send the poor kid off on some search in Siberia. :oops:

Jeez. Good thing the McCarthy era was in the 50s (i think)

Thanks Stephen

jf

- sabatooch - 09-30-2004

Wow, you guys are awesome, and quite obviously, very intelligent and well informed. Thanks so much for your time and effort

- Stephen Dame - 09-30-2004

sabatooch Wrote:Wow, you guys are awesome, and quite obviously, very intelligent and well informed. Thanks so much for your time and effort

Nah, I copied it all off the kid next to me.

Good luck with the paper!