The first leader of the federal New Democratic Party, Tommy Douglas, is being reviewed as a national historical figure because of his “controversial beliefs and behaviour” about eugenics..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board has recognized that Douglas supported the idea of sterilizing unmarried mothers in his past..“The Historic Sites and Monuments Board noted that Tommy Douglas wrote a master’s thesis on eugenics,” Dominique Tessier, spokesperson for the Board, earlier told Blacklock’s. .“He later changed his views on this topic.”.Historian William Kaiser from Saskatoon, who represents Saskatchewan on the Board, chose not to give his opinion when a special federal plaque was revealed in Regina to honour Douglas in 2019..The Board at the time described Douglas as a “skilled politician, witty orator and advocate for social justice.”.In 1933, Douglas wrote a master's thesis entitled The Problems of the Subnormal Family at McMaster University..He advocated government measures against people with “low mental rating” or “moral standards below normal who are delinquent,” including unwed mothers, women “subject to social disease” — a euphemism for prostitutes — and people “so improvident as to be a public charge.” .Douglas conducted his research by studying 12 families on welfare in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, during the Great Depression..Douglas wrote an article in June, 1934, for a magazine called Saskatchewan CCF Review. In the article, he talked about “Youth and the New Age” and said that the “science of eugenics” was a good thing. Eugenics is when people who are considered not good enough are sterilized..“The rising generation will tend to build a heaven on earth rather than to live in misery in the hope of gaining some uncertain reward in the dim, distant future,” wrote Douglas.. Tommy Douglas Under Review .Douglas served as the premier and health minister of Saskatchewan in 1944 and became the founding leader of the NDP in 1961. As NDP leader, he rejected a eugenics program. .Douglas was later chosen as the “greatest Canadian” in a TV program where people called in to vote..Cabinet in 2019 issued a Framework for History and Commemoration that mandated a “careful review of existing designations and plaque texts” for content deemed offensive. .The Douglas review is the first evaluation of a plaque that was revealed after the Framework was introduced..The Monuments Board also checked some 2,100 historic commemorations dating from 1919 for “outdated or offensive terms or word choices” and “an absence of a significant layer of history most frequently associated with the exclusion of indigenous peoples.”.“Nothing can be immune from review,” the Board wrote in a 2019 report Careful Review of Existing Designations. .“Every designation can be re-evaluated.”
