Depression caused many Cdns to ask gov’t for help. Cdns started to think differently about: the...
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Transcript of Depression caused many Cdns to ask gov’t for help. Cdns started to think differently about: the...
What were the political effects of the Depression?
•Depression caused many Cdns to ask gov’t for help.
• Cdns started to think differently about:• the role of gov’t • existing pol. Parties
•The Depression was a time period of great political change in Canada.
How did the government try to help Canadians?
King = PM for most of 20s
didn’t see DEP. coming
even after Crash, didn’t take prob. Seriously
refused to help municipal (local) gov’ts make relief payments
Lost election in 1930William Lyon Mackenzie King
Liberal Party
How did the government try to help Canadians?
R.B Bennett replaces King as PM
promised to help provinces with relief payments
won the election in 1930 raised taxes on imported
goods• to encourage local
production believed the econ. would
be fixed with these minor adjustments
Richard Bedford Bennett
Conservative Party
How did the government try to help Canadians?
By 1932, econ. still shrinking
Work Camps:• opened by Dept. of
Nat’l Defence Oct. 1932
• for single, unemployed and homeless men
• by 1935, more than 200 camps
• 170 000 men living in camps
Work Camp in British Columbia
How did the government try to help Canadians?
Conditions of work camps:• crowded• dirty• unnecessary work (?)
Each man received:• work clothes• soap and towel• a bed• 3 meals/day• use of shower & toilet• place to do laundry
Road construction project.
Work camp dormitory.
What new political parties did Canadians form?
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)• started 1932• blamed “big business” for
DEP.• ideas of socialism
gov’t should control business wrong that some Cdns get rich
while others are poor & hungry• support in Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario
• mostly farmers and workers, some intellectuals
James Shaver Woodsworth
first leader of the CCF
What new political parties did Canadians form?
Social Credit Party• started in Western
Canada (1934)• blamed big
businesses from central Canada for farmers’ problems
• gov’t should give every man & woman $25/mth to live
William J. “Bible Bill” Aberhartfirst leader of the Social Credit
Party
What new political parties did Canadians form?
Union Nationale• started in Quebec• DEP affected French- speaking
farmers and workers more than English-speaking business men
• Liberals didn’t have any new ideas about how to deal w/ DEP.
• young Liberals joined conservative leader, Duplessis, to make the new party
• promised to control “big business” & won the election
• once in power: promoted FrCdn culture Roman Catholic Church farming blamed Ottawa (fed. gov’t) for
Quebec’s problems VERY SUCCESSFUL PARTY!
Maurice Duplessis• provincial leader of
Conservative Party in Quebec (1933-35)
• first leader of the Union Nationale (1936)
What new political parties did Canadians form?
Communist Party• not new but very little
success in 20s• tried to organize workers
into unions in the 30s• also tried to organize the
unemployed• gov’t didn’t like this ;
made membership illegal
• Buck arrested in 1931 and sent to prison
• members born outside of Canada were deported
Tim BuckLeader of the Canadian
Communist Party
What new political parties did Canadians form?
Reconstruction Party• supported by small
businesses, farmers• “big business”
treated workers unfairly
• last new party to join the 1935 federal election
• didn’t have a strong impact
Herbert Henry Stevens• originally part of R.B. Bennett’s
Conservative gov’t• first leader and founder of the
Reconstruction Party (1935)
How did some unemployed show their desire for change?
1935-- protest in B.C. work camps• frustrated with
boring life @ camps• wanted real jobs
with real wages• felt gov’t had
forgotten them
How did some unemployed show their desire for change?
Strike• 1800 men• left camps to
demonstrated in Vancouver, B.C.
• demands:1. $0.50/day min. wage2. safer working
conditions3. gov’t system of
unemployment insurance
4. voting rights gov’t refused all
demands
Workers on strike in Victoria Square, Vancouver
How did some unemployed show their desire for change?
On-to-Ottawa Trek• workers were
desperate and determined
• got on trains heading east to take their demands to the federal gov’t
• well supported by Cdn pop’n—given food across the rail lines Workers on train heading to Ottawa
How did some unemployed show their desire for change?
Regina riot / Market Square riot• Bennett afraid of how
many men would join the “trekers”
• 8 men invited to Ottawa to discuss demands PM rejected all them ordered trains stopped in
Regina, Saskatchewan leaders to be arrested
• violence broke out as trains arrived and RCMP tried to arrest leaders and trekkers
• one police officer killed, several hundred injured
• most workers returned to B.C.
How did Bennett react to the country’s frustration?
1934 policy changes• help farmers sell their
products • set up the Bank of Canada
1935 Radio Broadcasts :“New Deal” promises• inc. taxes for the rich (big
business)• lower farm debts• intro. min. wage• 8 hour work day• unemployment insurance• better old-age pensions
How did Canadians react to Bennett’s promises?
shocked• did he really care• is he trying to win the next
election? determined to change
the gov’t forced political parties to
think about the avg. Cdn’s real needs
voted for King (Liberal Party)• didn’t believe in the new parties• Bennett’s promises were “too little,
too late”• King promised to spend on “public
works projects”• promised unemployment insurance