The Roaring Twenties
New Prosperity = New Fads
• People bought cars and radios, went to
movies
• Fads from US spread to Canada
• College students swallowed live
goldfish, six day bicycle races
• Dances known as the Charleston,
Shimmy, Turkey Trot
Fashion
• Tourists from US brought new fahsion trends
• Men: straw hats, form fitting double breasted
suits
• Women: “flapper” look
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“bobbed” hair
Knee hemlines
Silk stocking
Dresses the promoted the flat chested look
Mobility
• The automobile changed the landscape
• Invention of assembly line in 1913 by Henry
Ford meant that cards could be mass
produced inexpensively and quickly
• Automobile cost less than $300
• Most of road ran south to US closer relations
(changed from left hand driving to right hand
driving)
• First drive through restaurant – White Spot in
Vancouver
Mobility (cont.)
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Aviation expanded
Veteran pilots became “bus plots”
Aerial mineral exploration
Daring mission by Wilfred “Wop”
May, the WWI Canadian flying ace May
and fellow pilot Vic Horner volunteered
to deliver an antitoxins to treat
diphtheria outbreak in Alberta
Group of Seven
• 7 painters in tune with the new postwar national confidence
• In tune with new post-war national
confidence
• Interpret Canada's rugged landscape:
broad, bold brilliant colours
Group of Seven
Emily Carr
• From Victoria
• Best known painter
• Influenced by the Group of Seven
Work by
Emily Carr
The Lost Generation
• During the 1920's a group of writers known
as "The Lost Generation" gained popularity
• The term "the lost generation" was coined by
Gertrude Stein
• three best known writers among The Lost
Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest
Hemingway and John Dos Passos
• defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness
apparent in literary figures during the 1920s
Sports
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Thirst for entertainment led to interest
Baseball popular
Boxing, rugby, golf
Hockey came into homes in 1923
Percy Williams won two gold medals at 1928
Olympics in sprinting events
Ethel Cartherwood, won gold medal in high jump
Hockey team won gold medals
Charles Gorman – seven world speed skating records
Jeff Myles new record for Boston Marathon
Role of Women
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1921 only five women ran for office
Agnes MacPhail was the only one who won
Only woman in H of C until 1935
Principal role of women were wives and
mothers
• New labour saving devices: refrigerator,
vacuum, washing machine, iron, became
more affordable but meant that there were
higher standards of cleaning
Role of Women (cont.)
• Married women stayed at home
• Single women had limited careers
• Nursing and teaching
• Paid poorly
• Businesses: secretaries, telephone
operators, sales clerks
• Few were doctors, lawyers, professors,
engineers
Person’s Case
• 1929
• Emily Murphy, suffragist appointed magistrate
in Alberta
• Appointment was challenged on the basis
that only “persons” could hold this office
under the BNA Act
• Women were not “persons”
• Supreme Court of Alberta rules in Murphy’s
favour
Person’s Case
• Murphy and four other women known as the
“Famous Five” challenged PM King to appoint
a woman senator
• In April 1928, Supreme Court Canada,
decided that women were not persons
• Famous Five appealed to the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council
• October 18, 1929, Judicial Committee
declared support for women.
Aboriginals
• Were not classified as “persons”
• Could not vote in provincial or federal
election
• BC not until 1949 could Aboriginals vote
• Not until 1960 Aboriginals could vote in
federal elections
Reserves and Residential
Schools
• Social and economic conditions were
poor
• Residential schools difficult
• Traumatized by the separation from
their family
• Physical and emotional abuse
• Replace traditional or family leaders
with graduates of residential schools
Aboriginals Fight Back
• Early 1920’s Aboriginal people in BC
challenged the government on
1. Pot latch ceremony
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Important cultural ceremony among certain
peoples of the Pacific Coast
Significant events (births, deaths, marriages)
recorded
Missionaries and government saw it as an
obstacle to assimilation
Forbidden until 1884
Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)
2. Land Claims
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Aka Aboriginal Title
BC was unique in Canada in that only a few First
Nations on Van Island had negotiated land treaties
Most of the land in province was not signed away to
the government
Large tracts of land set aside as reserves for people,
federal government been taking land from reserves
without the consent of Aboriginal bands known as cut
off lands
Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)
3. Cut off lands
- Aboriginals leaders wanted their claims
to the land to be recognizes
- 1906: Joe Capilano, chief of Squamish
people, made journey to London to
present petition to the King
- Allied Tribes of BC, organization made up
seven tribes, appealed the federal
government’s actions
Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)
- claimed the removal acts contrary to
Indian Act which regulated relations
between the federal government and
Aboriginal peoples
- government changed act so consent was
not needed
African-Canadians
• Racial segregation was practices and
supported by Supreme courts
• 1921: Supreme Court of Quebec ruled in favour of
racially segregated seating in Montreal theaters
• 1929: blacks from the World Baptist Convention
were denied hotel rooms
• There was tolerance:
• 1919: Brotherhood of Railway Workers accepted
black porters as members
• 1924: Edmonton City Council refused to support
the ban of blacks from public parks and swimming
pools.
Immigrants
• War increased tensions between immigrants
and Canadians
• Russian and eastern Europe immigrants were
often accused of being socialist
revolutionaries, and the government was
constantly petitioned to deport them.
• Government adopted immigration restrictions,
giving preference to applicant from Britain
and US
• Others didn’t want immigration because
immigrants could work for low wages
End of the Roaring 1920’s
• Prosperity came to a crash on
• October 29, 1929: NYSE crashed
• More than 23 million shared changed
hands, prices fell
• Lead to the Depression