The Great Depression in Canada The Great Depression may very well have been one of the most significant eras in Canadian history. It has taught us many lessons about the present and predicting the future. The ‘dirty’ thirties, as it was referred to, was a time of hardship and poverty for most. Imagine what it would be like if we had to endure the same magnitude of recession? You wouldn’t have your phone or your computer. Maybe you would be living with all of your relatives in one house? Or you would be growing your food in your backyard? Leading Up To The 30s: Canada during the 1920s was definitely, as the saying goes, roaring. Following the end of WW1, quality of life had drastically improved. The Canadian economy had ameliorated, …show more content…
The Start of The Great Depression: Most say the onset of the Great Depression was spurred on by the stock market crash. Although economists don’t think that it was the only reason for Canada being in such a terrible state. In the 20s, people had, in their spending frenzy, bought large quantities of stock though credit, stock that they could not afford. People owed money to businesses and banks, and accumulated debts that they couldn’t pay off. In 1929, when it came time to pay, they didn’t have the money, and profits dropped drastically. The values of the stock became completely worthless. With no money and no jobs, people had to leave their homes either because they couldn’t pay for them, or they moved to search for a job. Life During The Great Depression: Life during the Great Depression was very different from life today. Many people were living on the streets in shanties, which were houses made of cardboard and scraps of wood. Milk and sugar were luxuries; you couldn’t buy them unless you were very wealthy. Often, men tried to sell apples in the street, just to make a few cents. Unemployment was a giant problem during the 30s. By 1933, Canada’s unemployment rate was at 30%. One in five Canadians were dependent on government relief to sustain their lives. The Prairie Provinces in Canada were said to be the worst hit in the world. They were almost completely dependent on the
The Great Depression was a terrible point in Canadian history, and for most of the world. It was a point in time where thousands of people lost their jobs, and even lost their homes because of the depressed economy. Business was booming in the early 1920s, but when companies tried to expand, and therefore issued stocks, the economy was thrown off. Some investors sold their stocks for high prices, and as a result, everyone else followed. With less of a demand, stock prices became fractions of what they used to be, and on October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, followed by the Toronto and Montreal Stock exchanges. This collapse of the stock markets caused a depression like which the world had never seen before. It was
In 1919, World War I had finally come to an end, leaving most of the world in a post war depression. However, in countries like Canada, the decade ahead would be filled with amazing growth and change in many ways. The 1920s were an exciting time in Canada because of the economic prosperity, technological, social and cultural revolutions and growing political responsibility and change in policy that country experienced. These economic, social and political changes really made the 1920s in Canada “roar”.
The Great Depression was a dark time in American history that lasted from1929-1939. It began after the Stock Market crashed on October 19, 1929. According to A Biography of America: FDR- The Great Depression, “It was the deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in American History” (A Biography of America). As a result of the Great Depression one out of every four Americans was out of work. The Great Depression resulted in a life for Americans that was plagued by overproduction and under-consumption of products, starving families were forced into bread and soup lines, and thousands of agricultural workers became migratory workers in order to survive.
The Great Depression- The Great Depression was one of the worst times for the Western Industrialized World, when it came to its economy The depression originated in the U.S, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929. Cities were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. The Great Depression affected anybody that was indebted. Some countries affected; Canada, Germany, Great Britain. Not everyone was affected in the same way during the Great Depression. Many of the rich weren't affected at all but the poor couldn't do anything about it. Thousands of homeless families camped out on the Green Law in New York City, which was an empty reservoir during the Great Depression. During the 1930s, manufacturing employees earned about $17 per week. Doctors earned around $61
The depression years of 1929 - 1939 proved to be the worst, and some of the best years for Canada and Canadians. It was a time of extreme highs and lows socially, emotionally, and economically. It was a time that Canada came into her own being on the world wide stage.
The Great Depression of the 1930's is a benchmark for all depressions and recessions in the past and in the future. In the booklet "The Great Depression of the 1930s in Canada" , Michiel Horn gives an intellectual dissection of the events that occurred during the Great Depression. Michiel Horn's approach leaves the reader with a foul taste for the Dirty Thirties. This essay will summarize Michiel Horns key points as well as discuss the ability of Michiel Horn to report his findings.
The Great Depression was not just a little event in history, hence the word “great”, but a major economical setback that would change Canada, and the world, forever. The word “great” may not mean the same thing it does now; an example of this is the ‘Great’ War. These events were not ‘good’ or ‘accomplishing’ in any way, quite the opposite, but in those times it most likely meant ‘big’. What made it big are many factors, both in the 20’s and 30’s, which can be categorized into three main points: economics, politics and society. With all these events, compressed into ten years, this period of economic hardship of the 1930’s truly deserves the title the “Great Depression”.
The amount and scope of this control has been growing steadily ever since.# After the First World War, the Canadian government moved away from a laissez-faire economy, taking a more hands-on approach. The expansion of factories that had occurred during World War One allowed Canada to overproduce goods during the 1920s and they began investing in the stock market, often buying on margin that resulted in massive inflation of stock prices.# The world’s financial centre moved across the Atlantic from London to New York. The United States had become the world’s financial capital. While there are significant exceptions (e.g. Britain), generally the industrialized countries experienced an economic boom in the twenties.# Based on expanding on markets and an increased demand for consumer’s goods such as the automobile and electric appliances, economies continued to expand until 1929.# On October 29, 1929, the economic boom of the twenties abruptly came to an end. This was known as Black Tuesday, and many Canadians, particularly those who had bought on margin, lost everything. Coupled with the financial collapse of the stock market, the prairies were ravaged by a drought that lasted nearly eight years. Unemployment skyrocketed, and many Canadians “rode the rails” in search of jobs. The Great Depression lasted until Canada declared war on Germany, creating another prosperous wartime economy.# The Great Depression
This clearly shows that Mackenzie King and Bennett had no idea of what to do and therefore gave the responsibility to the provinces, just so that they do not take the blame. The result of their ignorance was fiscal collapse for the four western provinces and hundreds of municipalities and haphazard, degrading standards of care for the jobless. Monthly relief rates for a family of five varies from $60 in Calgary to $19 in Halifax. Although there were no official starvation, reports by medical authorities of scurvy and other diet deficiency diseases were common throughout the decade” . This shows that Bennett’s and Mackenzie King’s ignorance did not just keep the unemployed jobless, but they made it even worse. The result of their ignorance lead to the collapse of 4 provinces in the west, and degradation of standard of care for the jobless. Their ignorance brought diseases to those to whom they ignored. Instead of Bennett and Mackenzie King fixing an extremely important issue, they just made it worse. The unemployed could not count on the federal government, but also, the unemployed had no other option. The US managed to control the Depression more efficiently than Canada, and therefore people preferred to live in the US than in Canada. The government failed at resolving the unemployment
The Great Depression also is known as the Dirty Thirties happened in the 1930s. It left Canada and the world in shock. Millions of Canadians were without jobs, and many became homeless. Countries across the world were affected by the Depression, such as the U.S.A. The USA was hit the hard which affected Canada. USA rely on Canada for fish and wheat when the U.S economy goes down Canada suffers. The U.S didn’t buy any more fish,wheat,minerals,pulp and paper from Canada. Many countries put high tariffs on goods,trading slowed down,people had to pay back their credit money they had borrowed from the government.Farmers were hit the hardest in Canada because if you could not pay for the land you would get evacuated. Droughts and grasshoppers infection started to happen which brought more suffering. Meat prices went up,some stores were closed down,Immigrant dropped 90% violence and crime went up. Men that didn’t have houses were sent to reliefs camps,the military setup 20 000 men to work sometimes works was useful,other times they would make work projects. They got 3 daily meals, work clothes,medical care, and 20 cents a day.The men would work 44 hours of cleaning brush,building roads,planting trees and constructing the public building.On April 1935, 500 men went on strike for better living conditions,more pay and fewer hours this has been just like the Winnipeg general strike. This depression made Canada what it is today,the economy is in better shape,people can find jobs and immigrants are taking over
This venture inspects what impacts the share trading system crash, that occurred In The United States In 1929, had on Canada s economy. The Great Depression disintegrated The United States economy, as well as Canada s finically solidness because of The extreme changes In The exchanging practices and The raise of levies. Keeping in mind the end goal to answer this inquiry unemployment rates In both The United States and Canada will be taken a gander at amid The years of The Great Depression . An article examining The impacts of The United States deferred recuperation had on Canada s capacity to ricochet back will likewise be given and a graph that demonstrates The rate of duties as of now. These assets will cooperate to give a clarification to The impacts The Great Depression had on Canada . (from history105.libraries.wsu.edu)
After World War I, the North American economy was booming, Canada had the world’s fastest growing economy. The start of the Depression came as a surprise to Canadians. When the stock market in the US, the biggest exported target for Canada’s primary resources after war, crashed, they reduced their demand for the products, people in Canada’s primary industries went bankrupt, unemployment rate raised from four point two percent to thirty percent, people could no more effort the luxurious lives, they did not buy much goods, which made other Canadian companies bankrupt, within a year millions of Canadians lost their
Despite this, there was no successful long term solution from the government to end the depression. Although relief camps created chaos in the form of riots and had men living in very poor conditions; the relief camps were successful to a point. The camps were able to take men off the street and at least provided food, a place to stay, and income. Additionally, tariffs did provide protection for some domestic industries. Unfortunately, the increase in tariffs were unable to protect all industries and were unsuccessful in producing long term relief from the depression. In the long run, tariffs did not prove to help end the depression because other nations placed commerce barriers against Canada. The federal government of Canada did step in to provide assistance through vouchers and welfare. Although this proved helpful to many families, the support was not widespread and was not successful in putting an end to the depression. The world had not dealt with such severe economic conditions before so the government could not utilize prior experience knowledge. Therefore, the government's attempts in dealing with the depression in Canada were able to provide minor relief to some
The economic hardships suffered by Canada were very drastic. The great depression largely affected the Canadian economies.There was a widespread drop in world commodity prices. The Prices dropped because of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff signed by U.S President to raise all duties and tariffs on items entering the U.S. Which Meant that less items were being shipped out and businesses were losing money. For example, by 1932 Canada's per capita gross domestic product fell 34.8 percent. To be more specific; the price of lumber dropped 32 percent from 1929 up until 1932. That is 10.6 percent per year. Moreover, With the result of the Smoot-hawley tariff act it did affect a large number of farmers in the West.
Life for people during the Canadian Great Depression of the early 1930 's had the worst living conditions of any Canadians in the 20th century. No country was hit as severely as Canada due to its strong dependence on raw material, farm exports, and the aftermath of the Prairies drought. This left thousands of Canadians starving and often homeless, as the social and economic shock, left millions of Canadians unemployed. Canadians living through the worldwide depression of the 1930 's dealt with the worst living conditions for any Canadians in the 20th century.