mastodon.online is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A newer server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Server stats:

11K
active users

David Sirota

When asked to vote on who was the country's single "greatest" citizen, Canadians didn't say Wayne Gretzky or some celebrity or even some prime minister - they gave the award to the guy who led the battle for universal single-payer health care. buff.ly/3VTTZIb

CBCTommy Douglas crowned 'Greatest Canadian' | CBC NewsThe former Saskatchewan premier was chosen by CBC viewers as the Canadian who has had the most impact on this county's history.

@davidsirota @cjmoorehead Of course, the votes came from CBC viewers, who are *definitely* a bunch of pinkos 😄

@TheJamieDub1 he would love to be remembered - he care only about this

@davidsirota As a Canadian living in a province where our government will be one of those leading the charge away from public healthcare and the legacy of Tommy Douglas, I sincerely hope enough of us have the the determination to resist. Even if the Liberals win the next election (which does not appear likely) I don't think they have the will to fight the provinces on this.

@davidsirota told my Canadian partner this factoid. She said "yeah? I know that" and then I saw the article is twenty years old

@Npars01 @davidsirota
He wrote his MA thesis on it but it was never reflected in any of his political positions or policies.

@davidsirota hey I remember voting for Tommy Douglas by texting the CBC number, which was quite an ordeal on my flip phone.

@davidsirota I don't know about universal healthcare. Only 36 of the 37 industrialized nations have made it work.

@soulexpress @davidsirota One industrialsed nation, still nominally having universal free healthcare, has successfully destroyed it - so that, ironically, we swapped our nice UK jobs for slightly less nice US jobs cause NHS, supposedly bestest health care system ever, won't be bothered to arrange for our seriously ill (epilepsy) son to see a specialist neurologist for over 2 years. Only a generalist pedestrian who prescribed meds, consulting a thick manual. Once we landed in Chicago area in late Oct 2024, it too ONE WEEK to be seen by such a specialist neurologist at the presumably best clinic in the state, etc.

And the best clinic in UK - well, it treats foreigners for a lot of money. They won't see a patient registered with NHS, unless they passed a number of vicious gatekeepers in form of GPs, regional triage panels, etc...

Today NHS has long waiting lists for even most urgent treatments (think freshly discovered acute cancer), etc.

@dimpase @davidsirota While Reagan was busy destroying America, Margaret Thatcher did the same to England.

@soulexpress @davidsirota That's a fairly tale. Thatcher took the country in an awful shape. Thatcher, tough bitch she was, didn't destroy NHS, not at all. It needed few generations of the Conservative party politicians to lose what decency they had, and become shameless grifters, to destroy the country.

@davidsirota Tommy Douglas is also the grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland so there's that too for those so inclined.

@davidsirota No argument but As a Type 1 Diabetic I'd like to boost Banting for not only isolating insulin but putting it into the public domain.

@davidsirota Brits feel much the same about Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan, and for much the same reason.

@davidsirota I would like to think that if Australians were asked the same question they would choose Gough Whitlam (a visionary socialist prime minister) but more likely they would choose Ned Kelly (a bushranger) or Don Bradman (a cricketer). Wise country Canada - unlike the neighbouring country (or is that market economy?) below the 49th parallel.