Yep, in a CBC poll, Canadians voted for Tommy Douglas as the Greatest Canadian of all time. Tommy Douglas is the man who brought Canada universal health care, labor rights, and a host of other progressive (and compassionate) legislation resulting in better lives for Canadians.  Not a sports figure, not a celebrity, not a flash politician.  A hard-working progressive who lived his values and made a better world for his compatriots.

Now I live in Canada a few months of the year in a rural area where health care is far from perfect.  In rural Canada, it is hard to provide enough doctors and nurses, hard to keep hospitals staffed, and sometimes just hard to get to the place where the health care is provided.  And people do complain about that.  But if you ask them would they give up their universal health care for the US system of private insurance, they look at you with pity or as if you are crazy. 

You see, they don't pay anything for health care here (apart, of course, from taxes), and that includes senior residence living and home health nurses.

As I said, it's not perfect.  But it provides something that is crucial in their lives.  The people I live among all summer long are rural working poor.  They are fishermen and farmers in a failing economy.  They have to go on unemployment during the winter months.  They are self-sufficient, hard-working people, who have very little money.  They work hard, they re-purpose and re-cycle, they make use of the natural resources that are available to feed themselves and shelter themselves.  And yet they don't worry about whether their children will get help if they get sick; they don't worry about what will happen to them when they get old; they don't worry about having to choose among rent, food, and medicine.  There is a basic sense of justice, fairness, and security:  ALL Canadians deserve and get basic medical care. 

I think that it is for making possible  that sense of security and fairness that Tommy Douglas is so beloved.