Claude Castonguay dead at 91

Claude Castonguay, the Liberal MNA who instituted socialized medicine in Quebec, has died at 91 and is receiving deserved accolades. Yves Boisvert sketches how Quebec was in 1960 – no socialized medicine, no public pensions, minimal social services and limited access to education – and calls Castonguay a nation builder as all these things became a part of modern Quebec.

But Don MacPherson of the Gazette tweeted just now reminding us that it was Saskatchewan that began the process of socializing medical care in Canada. Quebec was the last province to do it.