A new book detailing the people who helped Tommy Douglas move into political life and serve as premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 will be launched at the building where Douglas began his ministry in Weyburn when he arrived here in 1930.
A new book detailing the people who helped Tommy Douglas move into political life and serve as premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 will be launched at the building where Douglas began his ministry in Weyburn when he arrived here in 1930.Entitled Tommy's Team: The People Behind the Douglas Years, the book was written by Stuart Houston and Bill Waiser, and will be launched on Tuesday, June 22, at 3 p.m. at the Tommy Douglas Centre.The event will include an opportunity for book-signing by the authors, and a social time with refreshments.With 36 chapters altogether, each chapter details a different person and how they helped shape Douglas or assist him as the premier, or helped him to become the premier. The book follows Douglas' life and accomplishments up until he stepped down as the premier in 1961 to become the federal leader of the NDP.Some of the people profiled who had a strong Weyburn connection include Norman McKinnon (owner of McKinnon's Department Store), a staunch Liberal who was involved in Calvary Baptist Church; McKinnon's daughter Eleanor McKinnon, who served as Douglas' private secretary for his time in office as premier and then for 22 years in Ottawa; Dr. Humphry Osmond, whose ground-breaking research helped put the Weyburn Mental Hospital/Saskatchewan Hospital on the map at the international level; Irma Dempsey, who became Douglas' wife immediately before moving here to Weyburn; and Stanley Knowles, who went on to great fame as a parliamentarian, but was a fellow ministerial student with Douglas and shared preaching duties with Douglas as candidates for the ministry at Calvary Baptist.Author Stuart Houston was a long-time radiologist and conservationist, and is a past-president of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine; he has written 11 books and co-edited the health sector articles for the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan published for the province's centennial in 2005. His most recent book was, Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way.Co-author Bill Waiser is a specialist in western and Canadian history, and was department head of History at the University of Saskatchewan from 1995 to 1998. He has published several books, including most recently, Saskatchewan: a New History, and is a commentator for the CBC.The Tommy Douglas Centre, where the book launch will be held, was originally the Calvary Baptist Church in which Douglas began his ministry; when the church moved to their present quarters at 16th Street and First Avenue, the original church building was moved up to Signal Hill and restored, and houses memorabilia about the late politician who was later dubbed as The Greatest Canadian.
