Weekly Seminar Series: Gregory Marchildon
Sep 23, 2025
4:00PM to 5:00PM
Date/Time
Date(s) - 23/09/2025
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Gregory Marchildon, Professor Emeritus from the University of Toronto will have two presentations to our economic graduate students and faculty, cohosted with the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis!
Gregory P. Marchildon is Professor Emeritus, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto, and Founding Director of the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO). A scholar-practitioner, he has extensive experience in establishing and working in national and international research and policy networks. His research focusses on the history of public policy, with a particular emphasis on comparative health systems and policies and universal health coverage. His most recent book is Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada published by the University of Toronto Press in 2025.
Greg has worked in three professions in his lifetime: lawyer (criminal prosecution and defense); academic (London School of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, University of Regina, and University of Toronto); and public servant (Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Deputy Minister to the Premier and Cabin Secretary in Saskatchewan as well as Executive Director of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada). He has also done consulting for governments and international organizations on cabinet systems and decision-making, public policy capacity building and health system restructuring. Greg is a member of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
He will have two presentations over two days next week. His research covers Health Policy and Health services and systems.
Tommy Douglas & the Quest for Canadian Medicare
Beginning Tuesday, September 23, 3pm-4pm Gregory will present a hybrid presentation in Communications Research Laboratory (CRL-B119) and on Zoom.
https://mcmaster.zoom.us/j/93357198578
Meeting ID: 933 5719 8578
Passcode: 178867
Description
This book draws on the life of Tommy Douglas to examine the history of universal health coverage – commonly known as Medicare – in Canada.
How and why was universal health coverage implemented so early in a poverty-stricken province in Canada? Why was its design so faithfully replicated in the national standards that ultimately shaped Medicare across the rest of Canada?
Seeking to answer these questions, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada explores the history of universal health care through the life of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, identifying the pivotal moments and decisions that led to the establishment of Medicare in Canada.
The book traces the origins of Medicare back to the 1930s Depression and its devastating impact on the Prairie populations. Marchildon examines how Tommy Douglas and a new generation of reformers, radicalized by the Depression, prioritized socialized health care. The book reveals how, as the provincial party leader, Douglas leveraged support from both local and external allies to rapidly implement universal hospital insurance and lay the groundwork for a new health system.
Despite strong opposition from physician and business lobbies, Douglas continued to pressure the government for federal cost-sharing of universal health coverage. Drawing on archival sources including speeches, television broadcasts, and cabinet documents, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada illuminates how Douglas’s vision, leadership, and coalition-building among unions were crucial to the successful establishment of Medicare in Canada.
A Retrospective (& Prospective) on the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada: The Romanow Commission
https://mcmaster.zoom.us/j/93357198578
Meeting ID: 933 5719 8578
Passcode: 178867