Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas (20 October 1904 - 24 February 1986) was a Canadian communist politician best known for his "classical Marxist" reforms during the 1960s and 1970s during his long tenure as General Secretary of the Proletarian Republic of Canada, serving from May 2, 1962 until his abrupt resignation on October 19, 1974, when he was replaced by longtime ally and former Premier David Lewis. Along with Lewis and Worker's Party Chairman Bill Kashtan, he ruled as part of a troika in the 1960s and early 1970s known as the "Classicals," where they significantly reshaped the Canadian economy, embarking in an ambitious "10-year plan" of industrialization, harvest quotas and expanded public benefits, such as the Communist world's first true socialized medical system. Douglas also impro