Tommy Douglas – he is Keifer Sutherland’s grandfather and the father-in-law to one of Hollywood’s great actors of all times, Donald Sutherland. But Mr. Douglas does not shrink in the light given off by his famous relatives. No, because Tommy Douglas is a well known celebrity in his own right.

Mr. Douglas won a poll a few years back by a wide margin in his native Canada. He was named the Greatest Canadian.

So what did Tommy Douglas do to win such a singular honor? There have certainly been honorable and courageous men and women throughout the history of Canada. Why was Tommy Douglas chosen head and shoulders above the others?

Tommy Douglas was the leader of the New Democratic Party who helped usher in universal health care in Canada known as Medicare. It certainly wasn’t easy. There was opposition that fought tooth and nail to stop medical care for all, including a bitter doctors strike in the leading province of Saskatchewan. But in the end, Canadians finally agreed that it was for the best of the whole country.

Canadian Medicare did not go in without some hitches. Nothing on such a huge scale ever does. Social Security and Medicare did not go on without hitches. But in a democracy we experiment, evaluate and change. In Canada the health care system is close to universally popular and it is still evolving.

So popular is the Canadian system that nearly four decades after the system started, Tommy Douglas was named the greatest Canadian for his role in leading the installation of the Medicare system.

When we see what happened in Canada, we can easily understand what could happen to Republicans since their only real issue the last couple of years has been to stand in the way of health care for all. They have no plan of their own. Their only plan is to stop the nearly 1/3 of Americans who have little access to the health care system from having access.

Here is a short history of Canadian Medicare and Tommy Douglas.

Here is the famous story Douglas told throughout his career. It is still relevant today: