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TORONTO -- To our health, Tommy Douglas. Canadians toasted the father of universal health care over hockey icons, social activists and Nobel Prize winners in choosing The Greatest Canadian as the CBC wrapped up a six-week televised debate over who should wear the mantle.
Douglas, a former leader of the federal New Democratic Party and premier of Saskatchewan, triumphed over second-place Terry Fox, a one-legged runner who attempted a cross-Canada run to raise cancer awareness; former prime minister Pierre Trudeau in third; Sir Frederick Banting, a Nobel Prize winner for inventing insulin in fourth; and fifth place winner environmentalist David Suzuki.
"I feel like Tommy Douglas is getting the recognition he deserves," said MuchMusic's George Stroumboulopoulos, the celebrity advocate for the prairie preacher. "When we started this campaign in the summer, most people had never even heard of Tommy Douglas."
Douglas was born in Scotland in 1904, moving to Canada at the age of 15. His inspiration for social activism was formed as a child when a bone infection required multiple knee surgeries, none of which were successful. With no money for a specialist, Douglas' leg was saved thanks to a surgeon who agreed to perform the operation for free.
Douglas first became an ordained minister where noticed the impact of the Great Depression and decided government action was necessary.
He served as an MP from 1935 until 1944, when he became leader of the NDP's predecessor, the CCF, and premier of Saskatchewan.
His medical insurance program was unveiled in 1959.
A total of 1.2 million votes were cast in the CBC poll via telephone, e-mail and text messaging.
A Sunday broadcast debate on the CBC pitted celebrity advocates for the different candidates against each other with Stroumboulopoulos backing Douglas, the father of actress Shirley Douglas and grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland.
If Douglas, who died in 1986, were removed from the national equation "you remove the caring, sharing legacy of everything that we value ... you remove this, and this is our most treasured, treasured national characteristic," Stroumboulopoulos argued, waving his health card.
Rounding out the top 10 were former PM and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester B. Pearson; hockey broadcaster Don Cherry; Canada's first PM, Sir John A. Macdonald; inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell; and hockey's Great One, Wayne Gretzky.