Tommy Douglas is an icon and hero for Canada’s socialist left.
The CBC even dubbed him “The Greatest Canadian”.
Yet as a young man Douglas held some unsavory views, views that you don’t much hear about from the left or from the CBC.
For instance, as John Robson points out , Douglas proposed in his 1933 masters thesis the sterilization of “mental defectives.”
Nor is Douglas the only socialist to support such measures.
Sweden, good old social democratic, benign Sweden, practiced eugenics for 40 years beginning in 1935.
In fact, during that period 60,000 Swedes were sterilized in a “controlled breeding” program, for the “good of society.”
Remember this the next time somebody tells you government needs more power to protect the “collective good”.
Sometimes what’s supposedly good for the collective is just plain morally wrong.
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I actually don't think Tommy Douglas' idea of creating medicare was a bad idea itself. I think pretty much all Canadians of all political stripes believe in the idea no Canadian should be denied health care due to inability to pay. Where I disagree with our system is where it makes private payment either illegal or highly discourages it.
The CBC has its fair share of leftist such as Avi Lewis, Larry Zolf, and Neil Macdonald, but not all their commentators are left wing. Tom Velk who is a regular writer is quite right, Rex Murphy if anything leans to the right, on the National Panel at issue Chantal Hebert is pretty much politically neutral, but has good observations while Andrew Coyne is right leaning (maybe not right wing enough for some of you, but too the right of most Canadians).
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