Tertulia: Nicole O’Byrne on Tommy Douglas and Louis J. Robichaud and their contributions to Medicare [video]

Tommy Douglas and Louis J. Robichaud were the subject of the latest tertulia in Fredericton. What is a tertulia? A tertulia is a kind of philosophy café where the lives and ideas of big thinkers, artists and other people who left a mark are shared with a broader community of curious people.

On April 29, University of New Brunswick law professor Nicole O’Byrne spoke about Tommy Douglas and Louis J. Robichaud, two champions of Medicare. Douglas was a Canadian politician, serving as Premier of Saskatchewan and Leader of the New Democratic Party. Known as the father of Canadian Medicare, CBC viewers selected him as the greatest Canadian in 2004. Robichaud was a Premier of New Brunswick and known for implementing Medicare and the Equal Opportunity Program in New Brunswick.

Watch O’Byrne’s talk here:

A group of scholars from St. Thomas University and University of New Brunswick in Fredericton have been organizing tertulias since September 2018. Tertulias have featured talks on early historians such as Thucydides and Ibn Khaldun, modern thinkers such as Simone De Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt, and artists such as Bertolt Brecht, Emily Carr and Lucy Jarvis.

“When the coronavirus hit, we recognized the need to have ideas circulating relating to this crisis as well. Tertulias in the time of coronavirus are community presentations by scholars who are experts in their respective fields. They are designed to be accessible to the general public and spark ideas about our contemporary moment,” says Matthew Hayes, one of the Tertulia Fredericton organizers.

“Tertulias are spaces not only to reflect on knowledge but also to think about what is happening now, and what we want to do for the future,” says Hayes.

Upcoming tertulias this spring by Zoom at 7:00pm

May 13 – Matthew Sears on the ancient plagues

May 20 – Kerri Froc on Henry Morgentaler

May 27 – Carolyn MacDonald on Virgil and Latin literature after the fall of the Roman Republic

June 3 – Karen Pearlston and Jessi Taylor on the AIDS/coronavirus crises and lessons from queer activism

June 10 – Daniel Tubb on Gabriel García Márquez

The NB Media Co-op has partnered with Tertulia Fredericton to published videos of some of the tertulias.

For updates or the Zoom links, visit the Tertulia Facebook page or email info@nbmediacoop.org.