Gregory Marchildon

How and why was universal health coverage implemented so early in a poverty-stricken province in Canada? Why was its design so faithfully replicated in the national standards that ultimately shaped Medicare across the rest of Canada? Seeking to answer these questions, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada explores the history of universal health care through the life of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, identifying the pivotal moments and decisions that led to the establishment of Medicare in Canada. The book traces the origins of Medicare back to the 1930s Depression and its devastating impact on the Prairie populations. Marchildon examines how Tommy Douglas and a new generation of reformers, radicalized by the Depression, prioritized socialized health care. The book reveals how, as the provincial party leader, Douglas leveraged support from both local and external allies to rapidly implement universal hospital insurance and lay the groundwork for a new health system. Despite strong opposition from physician and business lobbies, Douglas continued to pressure the government for federal cost-sharing of universal health coverage. Drawing on archival sources including speeches, television broadcasts, and cabinet documents, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada illuminates how Douglas’s vision, leadership, and coalition-building among unions were crucial to the successful establishment of Medicare in Canada.

How and why was universal health coverage implemented so early in a poverty-stricken province in Canada? Why was its design so faithfully replicated in the national standards that ultimately shaped Medicare across the rest of Canada? Seeking to answer these questions, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada explores the history of universal health care through the life of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, identifying the pivotal moments and decisions that led to the establishment of Medicare in Canada. The book traces the origins of Medicare back to the 1930s Depression and its devastating impact on the Prairie populations. Marchildon examines how Tommy Douglas and a new generation of reformers, radicalized by the Depression, prioritized socialized health care. The book reveals how, as the provincial party leader, Douglas leveraged support from both local and external allies to rapidly implement universal hospital insurance and lay the groundwork for a new health system. Despite strong opposition from physician and business lobbies, Douglas continued to pressure the government for federal cost-sharing of universal health coverage. Drawing on archival sources including speeches, television broadcasts, and cabinet documents, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada illuminates how Douglas’s vision, leadership, and coalition-building among unions were crucial to the successful establishment of Medicare in Canada.

The health care system in Canada receives a great deal of international attention, but it is subject to considerable critique and debate locally. Health Systems in Transition: Canada provides an insightful and objective analysis of the organization, governance, financing, and delivery of health care as well as comparisons between the Canadian system and others internationally. This book draws on a wide range of empirical studies and statistical data within Canada and across comparable countries to provide a thorough description of the many facets of health care in Canada. Drawing on the most reliable and recent data available, this study reveals the strengths and weakness of Canadian health care. This assessment is based on numerous comparisons of Canada to peer countries (Australia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and among provinces and territories within Canada. It will be of interest to scholars and students in Canada wanting to learn more about the largest and most celebrated public program, and for those outside Canada interested in comparative systems and policy research.

It has been said of Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook) that 'no other Canadian carved his name so large upon his times.' A manipulative, self-serving charmer with immense business acumen, Aitken knew all the important Canadian financiers of his day, and repeatedly demonstrated his remarkable skill for making money in the field of corporate finance. In this book Gregory Marchildon looks at the entrepreneurial history of Max Aitken and his core enterprise, the Royal Securities Corporation. A penetrating study of investment banking and financial capitalism during the Laurier boom years, the book also deals more generally with the relationship between Canadian politics and imperial ideology before the Great War. Marchildon walks us through the machinations, uncertainties, and bravado that went into Aitken's world of promoting, financing, and stockbroking. He describes in riveting detail the playing out of the great mergers in Canadian politics and business life - most notably that of Stelco and Canada Cement. We see the inner workings of finance capitalism, coloured by many remarkable personalities of the day, and we learn how Aitken's innovative tactics made him a very rich man while still in his twenties. This is a deeply textured account of the dynamics of the securities market in the formative years at the beginning of the twentieth century. The first study of the whole of Aitken's Canadian career, Profits and Politics adds significantly to our understanding of finance capitalism during the Laurier era, and especially during Canada's first great merger era, from 1909 to 1913.

Fiscal Federalism and Equalization Policy in Canada aims to increase public understanding of equalization and fiscal federalism by providing a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective on the history, politics, and economics of equalization policy in Canada. The authors provide a brief history, an analysis of the politics of equalization as witnessed over the last fifteen years, and a discussion of key economic debates concerning the role of the program and its effects. They also explore the relationship between equalization and other components of fiscal federalism, particularly the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer. The result is an analysis that draws from the best scholarship available in the fields of economics, economic history, political science, political sociology, and public policy.

The Canadian health care system is so indisputably tied to our national identity that its founder, Tommy Douglas, was voted the greatest Canadian of all time in a CBC television contest. However, very little has been written to date on how Medicare as we know it was developed and implemented. This collection fills a serious gap in the existing literature by providing a comprehensive policy history of Medicare in Canada. Making Medicare features explorations of the experiments that predated the federal government’s decision to implement the Saskatchewan health care model, from Newfoundland’s cottage hospital system to Bennettcare in British Columbia. It also includes essays by key individuals (including health practitioners and two premiers) who played a role in the implementation of Medicare and the landmark Royal Commission on Health Services. Along with political scientists, policy specialists, medical historians, and health practitioners, this collection will appeal to anyone interested in the history and legacy of one of Canada’s most visible and centrally important institutions.