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.[1]
- Woodrow Lloyd was the Premier of Saskatchewan when universal medicare was introduced in Saskatchewan.[2]
- 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.[3]
- 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".[4]
- 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.[5]
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.