HISTORICAL PAPERS 2007 Canadian Society of Church History
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HISTORICAL PAPERS 2007 Canadian Society of Church History Annual Conference University of Saskatchewan 27-29 May 2007 Edited by rian Gobbett, ruce L. Guenther and Robynne Rogers Healey (Copyright 2007 by the authors and the Canadian Society of Church History Printed in Canada ALL RIGH,S RESER-E. Canadian Cataloguing in Pu lication Data Main entry under title/ Historical Papers 0une 212 319886- Annual. A selection of papers delivered at the Society7s annual meeting. Place of publication varies. Continues/ Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Church History, ISSN 0842-1056. ISSN 0848-1562 IS N 0-9696744-0-6 319926 1. Church History–Congresses. 2. Canada–Church his- tory–Congresses. l. Canadian Society of Church history. R570.C222 fol. 277.1 C90-020219-0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Papers Medicare Crisis and Faith Crisis/ ,he United Church of Canada and the 1962 Saskatchewan .octors? Strike SAN.RA EAR.SALL 5 elgian Catholic Relations with @AthersB in Cestern Canada, 1880-1940 CARNELIUS 0. 0AENEN 17 ,he Pursuit of Solyma/ 0ohann Heinrich 0ung-Stilling?s Letters as Part of His Spiritual Autobiography SERGED PE,RA- 21 ,he .estruction of Robert Alder/ An EEample of ,ransatlantic Culture and Anarchy among the Methodists ,A.. CE 42 New Light on an Ald ScandalF SeE and Corporate Politics at the Norway House Methodist Mission of 1846 ARLE,,E GINCH 61 ,he Canadian attle for Christmas GERRD ACLER 77 @Ce Cish to Inform DouB/ Canadian Religious Reporting of the Rwandan Genocide HA,E ACLER 89 ,he Place of Church History in the Rise of Evangelicalism .ARREN C. SCHMI., 99 ,he Many Faces of Providence in the New England Captivity Nar- ratives of Nehemiah How and the Reverend 0ohn Norton, 1748 CALLEEN GRAD 111 @ arred from heaven and cursed foreverB/ Ald Colony Mennonites and the 1908 Commission of InIuiry Regarding Public Education ALAN M. GUEN,HER 129 4 Contents Commemorating the Contri ution of John (e ster )rant to Canadian Religious Historiography: Four Vie,s 0ohn Cebster Grant?s Contributions to Aboriginal Historiography SUSAN NEDLA N 149 ,he Contribution of 0ohn Cebster Grant to Protestant Religious Historiography PAUL R. .EHAR 160 Reflections on 0ohn Cebster Grant?s Influence on Catholic Historiography in Canada MARH G. MCGACAN 166 0ohn Cebster Grant and His Place in the United Church of Canada 0AHN H. DAUNG 174 CSCH President-s Address iography and Church History ELEANAR 0. S,E NER 181 Please Note ,he following papers were presented to the Canadian Society of Church History, but were not made available for publication/ Gordon L. Heath, @Half- reeds and Rebels/ Canadian aptist Newspapers and Constructions of the Riel Rebellion in 1885BJ Marcus Meier, @0ane Leade?s Spiritual .iary KA Fountain of Gardens? L Autobiographical Reflections in the Age of EnlightenmentBJ .ouglas H. ShantM, @,he Harvest of Pietist ,heology/ ,he Intersection of Mystical Protestantism and Enlightenment ,hought in the Autobiography of Friedrich Christoph Aetinger 31702-17826BJ 0ames Robertson, @His .ominion vs. New Ireland/ ,he Antario Protestant Response to the Fenian Invasion of 1866BJ Robynne Rogers Healey, @Putting Peace into Practice/ Cold Car Nuaker EEperiments in Civil .efenseBJ 0ames Enns, @Saving Germany/ North American Mennonite Missionaries in the Post-Car Protestant HeartlandBJ rian Froese, @KAur Christians?/ Mennonite Missions and Cultural Encounters in ritish ColumbiaBJ and Royden Loewen, @,he .iasporic Imagination of Ald Colony Mennonites in MeEico, 1920-1950.B Medicare Crisis and Faith Crisis: The United Church of Canada and the 1962 Saskatchewan Doctors‘ Strike SANDRA BEARDSALL St. Andrew‘s College During a lunch break at a Saskatchewan United Church meeting a ew years ago I mentioned that I was interested in the church‘s response to the crisis that erupted at the introduction o universal medical care in Saskatchewan in 1962. )Oh, you won‘t ind anyone willing to talk about that,, a woman snapped. )That‘s a very pain ul sub.ect., Others around the lunch table nodded. It had been over orty years, but the topic was still too di icult to broach. O course, I became more curious. I advertised through United Church channels, asking or people willing to share any memories o the time, and began to research the issue. I discovered that the Medicare Crisis has not generated much scholarly interest since the late 1960s. 1hen it does sur ace, however, it indeed evokes strong reactions, and not .ust in church circles. 2or e3ample, I discovered a little debate un olding in the margins o a university library copy o a 1967 book5 Doctors Strike: Medical Care and Conflict in Saskatchewan. On 6 November 1987, D. Love, BA, BComm, inscribed the hal 8title page with his assertion that one o the authors, Samuel 1ol e, had been a doctor brought in by the Saskatchewan government as a strikebreaker, making the book there ore )biased in its conclusions against doctors., On 3 April 1988 an anonymous reply appeared, urging D. Love5 ):et your acts straight., This reply rightly goes on to situate 1ol e as a University o Saskatchewan pro essor who had been in place long be ore the strike began.1 Another e3ample is the reaction to ; and the hasty Historical Papers 2007: Canadian Society of Church History 6 Medicare Crisis and Faith Crisis suppression o ; the television mini8series, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, which provoked vigorous response due to small errors o act relating to the Liberal Premier and agriculture minister, James :ar ield (Jimmy) :ardiner.2 Like the physician‘s little hammer or testing re le3es, it seems that when it comes to the doctors‘ strike o 1962, all it takes is one tap, and a knee invariably jerks. My curiosity about the United Church‘s reactions stems rom my interest in the way this Canadian8born denomination has navigated the choppy seas o its short history, at both magisterial and congregational levels. In this paper, a ter brie ly tracing the history o medicare in Saskatchewan and the United Church‘s o icial views on the sub.ect, I will report what I have discovered so ar about that negotiation, both in my initial research and in the response I received in presenting that research, concluding with some interpretation. Background: The Story of Saskatchewan Medical Care and the nited Church!s Position up to 1962 The story o medical care in Saskatchewan mirrors the development o the province more generally5 a litany o creative and o ten cooperative solutions to the well8known challenges o prairie settlement, helped along with a prescriptive rhetoric o )prosperity and progress.,3 In 1915, the council o Rural Municipality A211, meeting at the town o Bold ast, voted to use ta3 revenue to pay a retainer to the local physician. Thus began nearly three decades o e3periments in the provision o medical care to Saskatchewan residents. Legislation to regulate such plans passed in 1916, and they spread throughout the province. Doctors still collected additional ees rom patients, but had a guaranteed annual income.7 During the 1930s, as rural amilies and communities struggled to pay their bills, physicians began to advocate or health insurance plans and ee8 or8service payments to replace the municipal doctors‘ schemes. The Liberal provincial government o the time supported voluntary health insurance plans, some o which became local health insurance cooperatives.5 Doctors‘ organiCa8 tions tended to oppose cooperative insurance plans, pre erring to set up their own insurance schemes.6 1hile these measures served as orerunners, it was the decisive 1977 Saskatchewan CC2 party provincial election victory that led more directly to the introduction o universal medicare. Premier T.C. (Tommy) Douglas Sandra Beardsall 7 promised that his party would set up medical, dental, and hospital services )available to all without counting the ability o the individual to pay.,7 Lacking the unds to enact the plan immediately, the CC2 passed a BospitaliCation Act in 1976, and that same year also created the Swi t Current Bealth Region in southwest Saskatchewan, designed to be a template or the rest o the province with its universal medical8dental coverage, wholly unded through ta3es. Once again, doctors and private insurance companies resisted this development.8 In 1959 Douglas announced that his government was ready to enact a universal medical care plan. The CC2 ought the 1960 provincial election largely on the medicare issue, while the Liberals, backed by the Canadian Medical Association, ran an anti8medicare campaign. The CC2 won its i th consecutive provincial mandate with an increased ma.ority in the legislature, and ormed an advisory committee to help dra t the medicare bill. The Thompson Committee, consisting o twelve members, si3 o them physicians, ell into con lict, and as a result produced three reports, rather than one, in the all, 1961. The ma.ority report avoured government8paid universal health care coverage, overseen by a public commission. A minority report advocated voluntary private medical insurance, with government subsidies or the poor. Its signatories were the three physicians on the committee who represented the College o Physicians and Surgeons, and the member who represented the Chamber o Commerce. A third, dissenting, report, rom the representative o the Saskatchewan 2ederation o Labour, called or universal health care with doctors on salary, administered directly by the Department o Public Bealth.9 On the basis o the ma.ority report, the government introduced the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act in October 1961, only days be ore Tommy Douglas was to resign o icially as premier, in order to lead the ederal NDP. Le t to enact the legislation was Saskatchewan‘s new premier5 ormer education minister 1oodrow Lloyd, a United Church layperson. During the years leading up to the 1961 legislation the o icial United Church position ; at both the national and provincial levels ; endorsed government8paid universal health care.