Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian Medicare, born on this day 120 years ago

NDP Leader Tommy Douglas speaks at a news conference in Ottawa, June 30, 1968. The Federal Court has ordered the government to reconsider its decision to withhold parts of a secret RCMP dossier on socialist trailblazer Douglas. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Bregg)

On October 20, 1904, Thomas Clement (Tommy) Douglas was born in Falkirk, Scotland.

After moving to Canada with his family at age 15, Douglas became a Baptist minister and settled in Weyburn, Sask., in 1930.

The suffering he witnessed during the Depression prompted him to join the fledgling Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and win a Commons seat in 1935.

In 1944, Douglas became the Saskatchewan CCF leader and led the party to a landslide victory that made it North America's first socialist government.

During the next 17 years, the Douglas government pioneered Medicare and numerous other programs.

After the CCF was reorganized as the New Democratic Party in 1961, Douglas served as its first federal leader for 10 years and remained an MP until 1979.

He died of cancer in Ottawa on Feb. 24, 1986.