 After four years of war the world had changed
 New boundaries in Europe and
European powers were bankrupt.
 Communist government in Russia and
U.S. was on its way to becoming a world power, so Canada now looks to the south for a trading partner. The British
Empire was now the Commonwealth of
“Equals”

 Canada sees a post-war depression and growth of discontent
 Inflation, high unemployment, regional division, labour unrest

 many troops wait to return home –unrest in camps in Europe
 no work or training when troops returnwomen in their jobs
 government offered veteran $750 benefits -they want $2000

 Labour unrest result of :
 Munitions factories were closing because of lack of demand
 a quarter million out of work
 Resource extraction industries have no markets
 Unions grow from 143 thousand to 378 thousand
 Workers had waited through war for wages to increase
 Russian Revolution had promoted radical union ideas
 Western Canada has many new immigrants with union experience

 Western Canada has many new immigrants with union experience
 1919 Winnipeg General Strike –workers want right to bargain
 June 21, 1919 – Bloody Saturdaytroops charge crowd
 Employers saw government action as attempt to drive unions out



Western farmers dissatisfied with controlled wheat prices
Inflation rate were high because banks wouldn’t lower interest rates – small businesses go bankrupt
 Discontent leads to new parties on the
Canadian political scene






1919 – Wilfred Laurier dies and is replaced by Mackenzie King
1920 – Robert Borden steps down as leader of the Union Government and members return to their traditional parties
Arthur Meighen is the new Conservative leader
1921- General election – Liberals win with
King as new PM
117-Liberals 50 – Conservative and NPP win
64 seats

 National Progressive Party emerges on the federal electoral scene with
T.A.Crerar as leader. The party is formed in the western provinces and has a rural base in the farming sector of
Ontario and the Prairie provinces.

 The NPP felt the old protective tariffs of the past benefited the manufacturing sector but hurt the farmers and they fought for abolishing tariffs and lower freight rates.
Regionalism was entering Canadian politics and became instrumental in the
“balance of power” with minority governments depending on them. The
NPP challenged government to make social change (ex Old Age Pension)

 1922- Canada exercises new autonomy by not supporting British in a war in
TurkeyChanak Crisis
 In 1923 Canada negotiates its own international agreement with US
(International Pacific Halibut Treaty)



1925- General Election – Liberals create a coalition government with NPP support
(Conservatives- 116 Liberals - 99 +
NPP –24)
1926King-Byng Affair –Lord Byng
(Governor General) refuses to dissolve parliament at the request of the PM after corruption found in government – Meighen becomes new PM but is forced to call an election due to lack of support by the NPP

 1926 – King wins election with a majority by managing to associate Meighen with an abuse of the Constitution because
Byng hadn’t acted on the request of the
Prime Minister
 This leads to a change in the status of the Governor General at the Imperial
Conference in 1926 which produces the
Balfour Declaration and more autonomy

 The twenties began with an economic depression due to Britain and Europe being badly in debt. Canada now looks to the United States to sell its goods
 By the mid-twenties the post war depression had ended and people were back to work and times were good

 1926- new prosperity in Canada largely due to trade with US
 US had come out of WWI a wealthy nation (Britain in debt)
 Immigrants had once again come to
Canada after WWI


Americans invested in “branch plants” in
Canada to avoid tariffs
 Canada has several new hydro- generating plants (cheap energy)
 Canadians were put to work in Ont. and
Que. factories producing cars, clothing, radios, gramophones, refrigerators
 Workers had lots of work logging, fishing, mining, and producing pulp and paper – extracting Canada’s natural resources

 The Canadian economy was based on its primary industries while the more beneficial secondary industries developed in the US
 Farmers had a stable market
 Consumers had money to spend and the economy boomed








 New highways built to trade between Canada and US
New wealth created social and political change
Better education provincial power increased
Pensions end of prohibition
Introduction of welfare programs
American cultural influences grew:
Radio movies service clubs sports unions

 The Roaring Twenties created an overly optimistic view of economic wealth and dependence on the United
States.
 Canadians felt the good times would never end.

 The Causes of the Great Depression
 1. Drying up of world markets because
Europe was still under a huge financial debt owed to US from WWI.
Britain and France owed U.S.
Germans could not pay reparations to
Britain and France

 2. Economic protectionism- raising tariffs to protect industry was a problem because it effectively closed trade markets

 3. Excessive credit buying

The roaring twenties created a “buy now pay later” attitude (over-speculation) people borrowed money and bought on credit assuming the good times would never end. People bought stocks “on margin” to invest with no source of money to payback their loan.

 4. Over-production of products. New methods of mass production which led a situation where Canada couldn’t absorb it’s own products
 Canada relied heavily on export of its field, forests, water and mine products to other countries – mainly the U.S.

 First sign of trouble was the wheat pools not being able to get a decent price for their product due to overproduction of wheat (competition from Australia,
Argentina, USSR and Europe created a glut in the market)

 Europe had no money to buy Canadian factory products and the US raised tariffs to protect their own domestic factories
 Prices fell because of oversupply, factories closed, unemployment rose.
Businesses started to fall because of debts owed for new expansions.
Shareholders sold stocks to try to get their money out of failing companies

 October 29, 1929- Black Tuesday – New
York Stock Exchange crashed because of a panic sell off by investors who fear losing their life savings. People lost millions. The Toronto Stock Exchange followed soon after – panic ensued.

 International tariffs put up and this led to restricted trade and closed markets resulted in million being put out of work
 Canada was hit hard because of its dependence on exports of its factory goods, and natural resources to the U.S.

 Prairie provinces were hit the worst
 bumper crop that flooded the market drove prices down
 severe drought began and lasted seven years ( dustbowl)
 The result was an economy that just kept spiraling downward
 grasshoppers followed devouring what remained

 200,000 forced from their farms
 per capita income dropped 71% in three years
 2/3 of population in Saskatchewan are put on some sort of public assistance

 Overall Canadian incomes fell 50% one in four Canadians was out of work
(27%)
 Two million out of ten million were living on relief hand-outs and later in the depression the government offered a relief payment called “pogey”. People had to publicly declare their own financial failure to receive vouchers to buy food.

 Many proud Canadians were desperate enough to go through the humiliation for relief to be able to feed their family.
There was no unemployment insurance or welfare programs – millions of people forced to rely on charity. Many
Canadians were destitute, humiliated and starving. The suicide rate in Canada soared.



Liberals were in power as the
Depression hit Canada.
Mackenzie King doesn’t want to acknowledge the severity of the
Depressionhe doesn’t know what to do and wants people to wait it out. “The economy needed to”rest” after a long bull market, it was a normal depression like in 1913 and 1921”, “the economy was fundamentally sound” he said.

 With an election coming up in 1930 King mistakenly says he wouldn’t give a 5 cent piece for relief programs to any
Tory provinces- he appears uncaring and unsympathetic and loses the election (this benefits King later)
 Conservatives 131- Liberal 91- NPP 12-
Labour Party 3

 RB Bennett takes power promising to
“end unemployment or perish in the attempt”. He is a self-made millionaire, corporate lawyer and business tycoon who gave the provinces $20 million for emergency relief ( King called this
“fiscally irresponsible” )






Bennett raised tariffs on imports by 50% protectionism- this caused other countries to respond with their own tariffs
-created the Bank of Canada to regulate monetary policy
-created the CBC
Bennett plans all failed and the depression deepened
-he becomes the scapegoat for frustrated
Canadians and people coin phrases like
“Bennett Buggies” “Bennett-burghs” “Bennett tea” “Bennett Barnyard”

 People fight for jobs – discrimination
 Religious leaders- Depression was punishment for the “loose living of the
20’s”
 -Radicals like communist leader Tim
Buck are given stiff jail sentences.

 Single men could get no relief so they
“ rode the rails”
 -Bennett created work camps for single men- set up by the DND – they were like slave camps, demeaning work, 20 cents a day
 - over 170,000 men spent some time in these camps


Trek “On to Ottawa” led by Arthur “Slim”
Evans started as a protest movement in the work camps that involved thousands of men riding freight trains to Ottawa to protest their treatment. The protest is stopped in Regina and results in a violent riot.

 In 1935 – pre election Bennett offers his version of the “New Deal” a complete
180 turn offering unemployment insurance, minimum wages (limit hours of work),farm credit and farm rehabilitation measures to deal with dust bowl (soil erosion).

 Mackenzie King points out this sudden turn in direction and Bennett loses the election and leaves Canada. King returns to power under the slogan “King or Chaos”. King questions Bennett’s ideas as unconstitutional – provincial responsibility?

 Mackenzie King returns with few answers as to how the handle the
Depression. King returns to “lassizefaire” (hands-off) approach to the economy

 King signs a new trade agreement with
US that lowers tariffs
 He gives tax exemptions
 -1938 - He abandons the balanced budget to get stalled economy moving again
 He closes down relief camps and opposes idea of more aid to provinces

 King sets up the Rowell-Sirois Royal
Commission to study
 Federal /provincial relations and the question of which branch of government bears the responsibility for unemployment insurance and other social benefits.

 Frustrated with the traditional two parties and their mismanagement of the
Canadian economy during the depression (many showed their displeasure with the idea of brokerage politics practiced by the traditional parties) people looked for an alternative political party to better represent them as the NPP had done in the 1920’s.

 Dissatisfaction caused by certain economic groups feeling betrayed
(farmers, labours) and certain regional groups felt ignored by federal government.
 Radical political parties reached new heights during the Depression



Formed in 1921 at a secret meeting in
Guelph, Ontario
1931 – RB Bennett promised to crush the
Communist under an “iron heel” - Leader Tim
Buck and eight others arrested in raid and
 Buck serves five years hard labour in
Kingston and survives an assassination attempt by guards which was only meant to
“frighten him” according to Minister of Justice after the cover-up comes out in House of
Commons

 Began in 1933- Led by James
Shavers Woodsworth who was a Methodist minister who combined Christian social gospel with economic ideas of socialism (former leader in the
Winnipeg General Strike and
Labour MP from Winnipeg)

 The CCF was an alliance of labourers, farmers and intellectuals. The CCF believed that big business was at fault for the depression. Their goal was to replace “free enterprise”.
Unlike the communist idea of overthrowing government the
CCF wanted to introduce
“democratic socialism” to
Canada.






 The CCF policies were laid out in the Regina
Manifesto (drafted by Frank Underhill) and stated: Government should “nationalize” all productive business -mines, farms, financial institutions and communication networks – all profits should be used to provide social benefits to everyone equally like:
Unemployment Insurance
Old Age Pension
Family Allowance
Free Medical Care
Minimum Wage

 In 1935 CCF win seven seats in House of Commons and a young Tommy
Douglas of Saskatchewan is one of them. He will be first premier of the socialist government in Saskatchewan in
1944. He will also be first leader of the
NDP in 1961 (CCF + CLC = NDP)

 Began in Calgary in 1934 -Led by
William “Bible Bill” Aberhart
(a principal and radio minister).
He combined political and religious appeal with a genius for campaigning. “The economy was like a human body. Just like blood must circulate to keep it alive so must money circulate through the economy”
(developed by Major C.H.
Douglas).

 Social Credit was an alliance of western farmers who felt the “Eastern” Banks had betrayed them and would not lend them money so it could circulate.
Aberhart’s solution – he wanted to supply a social dividend or credit of $25 a month to every adult in the province to give people purchasing power which would lead to prosperity and job creation and revive a stagnant economy



Alberta elected 56 Social Credit MLA’s out of
63 provincial seats. After two years in power
Social Credit went to produce its “funny money” scheme and the federal government
(Supreme Court) stepped in and declared it illegal under the constitution (a federal responsibility) - Aberhart once again blamed the Eastern bankers. The Social Credit went on the have long reigns in both Alberta and
BC. Aberhart replacement in Alberta was
Ernest Manning, father of Preston
1935- General Election –17 MPs elected federally

 Began in 1935 in Quebec -Led by Maurice Duplessis who turned a French Canadian nationalist protest movement into political party.
 They felt that since WWI
Quebec had been ignored and that English control of business and wealth within Quebec was exploiting French Canadian farmers and workers.

 In 1936 Union Nationale swept the provincial Liberals out of power in Quebec
 Duplessis gains power by appealing to Fr.
Canadians and offering to retake control of
Quebec’s natural resources from the
English minority. He promises increased provincial control, to secure new markets for Quebec’s farm products, improved working conditions and lower income housing.

 Duplessis is anti-union and anti-communist he creates “Padlock Act” to throw communist in jail for communist behaviour which he said “is something that can be felt”. He believed church has too much power within Quebec
 He ruled Quebec until 1959 like a dictator that would bully people with the Padlock
Act. The end of his time in office in
Quebec would mark the beginning of what will be known as the “Quiet Revolution”.

 Although the groundwork had been laid during the Laurier Era, the Women’s movement made significant steps during the inter-war period. After achieving the vote after WW1 , Agnes Macphail went on the be Canada’s first female MP. In 1929 the British Privy Council ruled that women were indeed “persons” under the law thanks to the work of the Famous Five.