Charles Godfrey

Charles Morris Godfrey (September 24, 1917 – July 24, 2022) was an American-born Canadian physician, professor and politician in Durham Region. He served as an Ontario New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament for two years in the Ontario legislature, but he is best known for having led the protests against the proposed Pickering International Airport in the 1970s, which forced the federal government to mothball the project.

Background Godfrey was born on September 24, 1917, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his family moved to Toronto when he was seven months old. His father was a physiotherapist who encouraged Godfrey to study medicine. He served in the Canadian military for five and a half years during World War II and qualified as a physiotherapist while serving. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, paying for his schooling by working as a janitor and scrapyard worker before graduating in 1953. When in his 70s, he was still working 13-hour days teaching and maintaining his own practice while spending weekends at his country home in Madoc, Ontario with his wife, Margaret, and family.

International relief For over 20 years, Godfrey and his wife, a nurse, would spend six weeks per year as volunteers travelling to developing countries on lecture tours on behalf of CARE. and he received the Order of Ontario in 1996.

Politics

Activism Arguing that "Doctors must show leadership within the community",

Out of government Godfrey crossed party lines to endorse the Ontario Liberal Party in the 1981 provincial election and campaign for Liberal candidate Norman Wei, saying he preferred the Liberals' health care policies to those of his former party. He criticized the NDP for focussing on doctors' salaries, calling the issue a "red herring", rather than on hospital financing and health cutbacks. He said that he had never liked the NDP position on earnings, saying "I was not uncomfortable with it when I was there. I just don't think it's going to solve the problem."

Godfrey reiterated his opposition to an airport in 1989 when the plans were being revisited, saying "It'll cost a billion dollars for the airport, while I'm seeing people suffer needlessly because there aren't enough hospital facilities available." and died at his home in Madoc, Ontario, on July 24, 2022, at the age of 104.

Honours

April 20, 1989

Canadian Version of this Medal

Canadian Version of this Medal