Father of medicare

Several individuals have been described as the father of medicare in Canada. Medicare is the country's publicly funded health system.

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• Tommy Douglas championed public health insurance as Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and federal leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971.{{cite web | url=http://healthcoalition.ca/main/resources/tommy-douglas-the-father-of-medicare/ | title=Tommy Douglas: The Father of Medicare | publisher=Canadian Health Coalition | year=2012 | access-date=August 9, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813045105/http://healthcoalition.ca/main/resources/tommy-douglas-the-father-of-medicare/ | archive-date=August 13, 2012 | url-status=dead }}
• Woodrow Lloyd was the Premier of Saskatchewan when universal medicare was introduced in Saskatchewan.{{cite book | author = John F. Conway | date = May 30, 2014 | title = The Rise of the New West: The History of a Region in Confederation | edition = 4 | publisher = James Lorimer & Company | pages = 280– | isbn = 978-1-4594-0626-1 | oclc = 866048035 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k3-OAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA280}}
• Lester B. Pearson was the Liberal Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. His government saw medicare introduced on a national basis, after his party wrote and introduced the legislation for hospital and out-of-hospital treatment, and received the support of Douglas' NDP.{{cite book | author = Brad Lavigne | date = October 11, 2013 | title = Building the Orange Wave: The Inside Story Behind the Historic Rise of Jack Layton and the NDP | publisher = Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Limited | pages = | isbn = 978-1-77162-018-5 | oclc = 1124467587 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=f22qBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT87}}
• Emmett Matthew Hall was a jurist and chair of the 1964 Royal Commission on health care in Canada which recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's system of public insurance for both hospitalization and out-of-hospital medical services. In 1996, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stated that "Canadians will be forever grateful for the pivotal role that [Hall] played in bringing universal medicare to Canada. Throughout his long life, he remained medicare's most eloquent defender".{{cite web | url=http://www.canada-heros.com/hall_emmett.html | title=Emmett Hall - Canadian Father of Medicare | work=Canada-Heros | date=February 18, 2011 | access-date=August 12, 2012 | author=Jones, Don}}
• Paul Martin Sr., Minister of National Health and Welfare from 1946 to 1957, played a central early role in the adoption of hospital insurance and is also remembered as a father of Medicare.{{cite journal |url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/80786 |title=Northern Exposure |author=Henderson, David R. |journal=Defining Ideas |date=June 2011 |access-date=August 12, 2012 |publisher=Hoover Institution at Stanford University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120814175659/http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/80786 |archive-date=August 14, 2012 }}

This list includes individuals from three major distinct and competing Canadian political traditions: Douglas and Lloyd from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, later the New Democratic Party; Hall, a Progressive Conservative; and Martin and Pearson, Liberals.