Health care, of all the services available, is almost certainly the most important one many of us will ever make use of. Without adequate health, our performance degrades at work, our enjoyment of life decreases and some of our routine responsibilities become uphill struggles. And yet, in some nations not everyone has affordable access to it. In Canada, we have tax-funded, universally accessible health care under the label Medicare. Tommy Douglas, a former premier of Saskatchewan, fought hard with the Federal government of his time to develop Medicare. For his efforts Canadians voted him the Greatest Canadian in 2004 through a CBC-run television series. Another prominent Canadian involved with supporting the creation of a system of socialized medicine was Norman Bethune . He went to China during the Japanese invasion in 1938 and acted as a battlefield surgeon, bringing anti-septic practices to Chinese medicine, a system of training doctors and nurses, and treated both Chinese and ...