Harry’s last stand comes to Oshawa

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

In his 92 years, Harry Leslie Smith has seen the world change.

Originally from Yorkshire, a young Smith was part of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and when he came home, he and his fellow veterans wanted to see a change in England.

“It’s really hard to believe that I was 22 before I ever saw a voting box in my early life. I was 22 when…the Second World War ended, and lots of people that I knew through all the regiments, and this included army, navy and air force throughout the world, were all adamant that we’re not going back to England to a land that we knew that so many of our friends died for,” he tells The Oshawa Express. “That was why we voted in a government that promised us firmly that the National Health Service would be formed.”

The 1945 British election which nominated Clement Attlee of the Labour Party to be the prime minister was the first act of political will exercised by Smith – a 70-year practice he will speak to at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery tonight, Wednesday July 29.

Smith, a social democracy advocate and columnist for British newspaper The Guardian, is part of the Broadbent Institute’s Stand Up for Progress Tour, a free event that will be making its final stop this evening.

“He’s an extraordinary guy,” says Ed Broadbent, former leader of the NDP and Oshawa MP. “He’s been speaking to packed houses (on the tour), and the reason for that is…because he’s an extraordinary speaker. He talks from personal experience.”

Smith uses his life experiences, such as the creation of the National Health Service in England to the creation of Canada’s health system, which was created on a national scale in 1957, and other social welfare programs, to illustrate how things have changed and how those programs need to be protected.

“We’re now always in a panic over our jobs, about how we could become a redundancy at work. We are stressed by the health of our parents and whether they can make due from their pension. We worry if we can save enough money to work for a few years before death takes us. It’s really a hard-scrabble life for most people,” Smith says. “My generation knew the cost of not creating a just society was the end of democracy and a life sentence of misery for many people in our country. We knew the price of failing to create and maintain universal healthcare was a return to a two-tier society. Everyone, whether they’re at the top or the bottom of society, has to begin to feel that they are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

“The only way that will occur is when everyone puts their shoulders to the wheel to get democracy out of the rut it is currently in. All it takes is the time to get informed on the issues that affect you.”