A Scotland Vignette
Our family history includes many stories of personal encounters with Tommy Douglas, former Premier of Saskatchewan and the father of Canadian Medicare.
My mother, Lorraine Boyle, references him in both her diaries and scrapbooks. Grandma Mossie Boyle mentions him in her memoirs.
My personal encounter took place in the early 1980s when we lived in Ottawa. My visiting parents were hosted for a tour of the Parliament buildings by a Saskatchewan NDP MP. I tagged along. The tour concluded at the parliamentary restaurant. At the end of the meal Tommy Douglas showed up to greet my parents, but he ended up chatting with me. I mentioned how we loved the beauty of the Gatineau river and Tommy said he owned and lived in an old mill on that river’s banks. Then he went on to say “the grandkids love it. I used to let them play alone along the water. But I made sure to hide in the bushes to keep an eye on them …” His only grandkids are actor, Kiefer Sutherland and twin sister, Rachel!
I didn’t get a picture with Tommy that day, but did in 2024, with the statue in his birthplace of Falkirk, Scotland.
July 12, 2024 note from Aunt Shirley (Butters) Aston: “My mom knew the Douglas’s well, for some reason I don’t know if there was a family connection in early years or if she had good friends in the Baptist church where Tommy was preaching. I remember when he was first running for parliament, and people were saying there was no room for politics in church. Boy, did Mom see them straight! When I was maybe 8or 9 I got Joan Douglas’s second hand clothes.
A companion statue stands on the banks of the Souris River in Weyburn SK, my birthplace. Here is the news record of the unveiling of this statue in 2010:
Verse for today:
Perpetual Annual Read-Through-The-Bible – Boyle Park Media, Copyright 2024
Click Here and SUBSCRIBE to be notified of every new post on BoyleParkMedia.ca