J.S. Woodsworth: Pioneer in the Call for Universal Health Care

As part of the Regina Manifesto put forward by Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 1933, J.S. Woodsworth was instrumental in forming free socialized health services for Canada. It was his belief that health care and education should both be made freely available to the citizens of a country. For J.S. Woodsworth, health care services and educational services could be considered interchangeable since both are essential tools for fighting against capitalist oppression; it takes a person who is both healthy and educated to fight back against attempts to dismantle Canada’s universal health care system. Were Woodsworth alive today he would no doubt be an outspoken and tireless activist against both the affects and intentions of health care budget slashing, as well as the promotion of privatizing health care will have a negative effect on the public health care delivery system, and questioning whether a two-tiered system can ever be more than just a system designed to offer better care to the wealthy.