Tommy Douglas is the founding father of Universal Health Care in Canada. On June 15, 1944 he was elected as Premier of Saskatchewan and made history as the first socialist government in North America to be elected.
Tommy Douglas passed away February 24, 1986, but 18 years later in 2004, he was voted the "Greatest Canadian" out of a list of 100 during a CBC prime-time, nationwide special. http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/douglas-tommy.html