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From minister to MP: T.C. Douglas enters the political fray
Broadcast Date: Oct. 18, 1974
Thomas Clement Douglas learned how to win over a crowd at an early age. His dinner table, he recalls in this CBC Radio interview, resembled a debating society. The Douglas family bantered back and forth vociferously. As a teenager he performed speeches, comic recitations and imitations on the concert circuit. He soon understood that when you had the audience laughing with you they were yours.But when Douglas was hired as the minister for the Baptist church in Weyburn, Sask., he found that his congregation was distracted. Struggling through the Depression, his parishioners focused on the basics of survival and had little energy left to think of the philosophy of religion. In this CBC Radio interview, Douglas looks back at his humble beginnings as a sickly Scottish immigrant who took elocution and boxing lessons to better himself. He also discusses how he entered politics out of a spiritual desire to help his fellow man.
From minister to MP: T.C. Douglas enters the political fray
• Thomas Clement Douglas was born on Oct. 20, 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland. His family immigrated to Winnipeg, Man. in 1910.• At age six Douglas fell against a large stone and struck his right knee which caused osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone. For a while, doctors thought that Douglas' leg would have to be amputated. His family couldn't afford specialized care but a kindly doctor took an interest in young Tommy and offered to operate for free. The doctor's only condition was that he be allowed to use the procedure as a teaching demonstration. Douglas felt indebted and often cited this as the inspiration behind his fight for medicare.
• At the start of the First World War, the elder Tom Douglas (Tommy's father) was recalled to the British Reserves. The Douglas family accordingly returned to Scotland and moved back to Canada when Tommy was 14.
• At age 14, Douglas quit school and became a printer's apprentice. A year later he was earning full journeyman's wages as the youngest Linotype operator in Canada.
• Douglas became the lightweight champion of Manitoba at age 18, weighing in at just 135 pounds.
• Douglas later returned to school and prepared for the ministry at Brandon College. He completed his MA in sociology at Hamilton's McMaster University and also did post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago where he studied the living conditions of hoboes living along the city's railroad.
• Douglas married Irma Dempsey, a music student at Brandon College, in 1930. They had one daughter Shirley and they later adopted a second daughter Joan. Shirley became an actress and Joan became a nurse.
From minister to MP: T.C. Douglas enters the political fray
Medium: Radio
Program: Between Ourselves
Broadcast Date: Oct. 18, 1974
Guest(s): Tommy Douglas
Host: Andrew Marshall
Reporter: Heather Robertson
Duration: 18:57
Last updated:
March 5, 2008
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Submitted by: Shayan Tabbakh