Economics & Social Change

1867-1931

Government policies that shield domestic

production from foreign competition through tariffs, quotas, trade restrictions, etc.

Protectionism

Since National Policy began in the late 1870s,

Canada has practiced protectionism towards its economy.

Current examples: Automotive industry: quotas on the number of

parts that must be produced in Canada Farming: subsidies on corn and milk CanCon: media must have 35% Canadian

content

An economic system in which private

individuals or corporations own the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth.

Relies upon constant innovation and investment in order to make a profit.

Often connected with free trade, but industrial capitalism has usually used national protections.

Capitalism

The gradual transformation of economic and

social activity from the production of natural resources to manufacturing.

A large proportion of the population become wage earners rather than farmers or craftspeople.

Industrialization

How was industrialization possible?

Metallurgy discovered more efficient ways to produce iron and steel

Steam power fueled ships, trains, and machines Electricity

Canada’s first electrical company was established in Manitoba in 1880

Canada’s first hydroelectric project was built in Ontario in 1881

We mean to make things over;

We're tired of toil for naughtBut bare enough to live on—Never an hour for thought; We want to see the sunshine, We want to smell the flowers;We're sure that God has willed it,And we mean to have eight hours.We're summoning our forces,From shipyard, shop and mill—Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, Eight hours for what we will!

From the factories and the

workshops,In long and weary lines,From all the sweltering forges,From all the sunless mines,—Wherever toil is wastingThe force of life to live,—Its bent and battered armiesCome to claim what God doth give.And the blazon on its banner Doth with hope the nations fill—Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest,Eight hours for what we will!

Song borrowed from the American Eight Hour Workday movement, published in the Ontario

Workman, May 16, 1872.

Q. What is the condition of the shoe business in

Windsor? A. It is in a very poor condition, and has been for

some time... Q. Does machinery interfere with custom work? A. Materially. Q. What machines do you speak of? A. Well, there is the sewing machine, the riveting

machine, and almost all kinds of machines... Q. I suppose in a short time shoemaking will die out? A. Well, the present race of shoemakers will die out.

Thomas Crowley, a journeyman shoemaker from Windsor Ontario, being interviewed during the 1889

Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital.

Q. What effect has machinery had on the cooper trade? A. It’s killed it. Q. In what way? A. Well they have machinery to windlist the barrels, to joint the

staves, and to do mostly everything except put on the hoops.  Q. What effect has the introduction of machinery had on wages? A. It’s also had a great deal of effect because it’s put more men

in the field and they have to work for cheaper to get employment.

Q. It’s almost driven the trade out of existence? A. Yup, mostly.

Richard Sommerville, a cooper (barrel maker), being interviewed during the 1889 Royal Commission on

the Relations of Labour and Capital.

Advocacy of a classless society in which

private ownership is abolished and the means of production belong to the community or the state.

A social order or system of government established by a ruling Communist Party.

Often synonymous with Marxism, or Marxism-Leninism.

Communism

A theory or system in which the ownership

and control of the means of production, distribution and exchange belong to the community rather than corporations.

Socialism can refer to all kinds of practices, not only the radical abolishment of the whole class system.

Socialism

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

I, the undersigned hereby apply for membership in ............. Local ................... Socialist Party of Canada. I recognize the class struggle between the capitalist class and the working class to be a struggle for political supremacy (sic), i.e. possession of the reins of government, and which necessitates the organization of the workers into a political party, distinct from and opposed to all parties of the capitalist class. If admitted to membership I hereby agree to maintain or enter into no relations with any other political party, and pledge myself to support by voice, vote and all other legitimate means the ticket and program of the Socialist Party of Canada only."

 1904 Application for Membership in the Socialist Party of

Canada, a radical political party which lasted for approximately 20 years.

Solidarity Forever

When the Union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run,There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.

Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?But the Union makes us strong.

CHORUS:Solidarity forever!Solidarity forever!Solidarity forever!

For the Union makes us strong

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;Dug the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid.Now we stand outcasts and starving, 'mid the wonders we have made;

But the Union makes us strong. 

Song written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915 for the Industrial Workers of the World, an international union formed in

1905, which promoted the idea of “One Big Union” across trades and across countries.

1919 Membership Card. The union began in June of the same year and had 70,000 members across Western

Canada by the end. Two years later it had nearly disbanded.

A crowd attempts to tip over a tramway car during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21, 1919. The strike began

in May and quickly shut down all city services and industries.

The Mounted Police charging down Main Street during the

Winnipeg Strike, June 21, 1919. Two strikers were killed that day as police fired into the crowd.

“The general public has not been innocent. It

has been guilty of the greatest sin: the sin of indifference. Thousands have suffered through the years under the industrial system. The general public have not realized. It did not touch them. They blamed the strikers. Why not blame the employers, whose arrogant determination has provoked the strike? Why not, rather, quit the unprofitable business of trying to place the blame and attempt to discover and remove causes that have produced the strike.”

J.S. Woodsworth, a mission worker and social activist, became involved in the Winnipeg General Strike and, on

June 12th, 1919, he wrote the following:

A response to the Winnipeg General Strike by the mayor of

Winnipeg, and published in the local newspapers.

The Citizens’ Committee of 1000 was a group of business owners and

politicians who banded together to oppose the

Winnipeg General Strike. They published the

following in the Winnipeg Telegram on June 28,

1919

“Who will mind the baby” cried one of

our public men, in great agony of spirit, “when the mother goes to vote?”.  One woman replied that she thought she could get the person that minded it when she went to pay her taxes - which seemed to be a fairly reasonable proposition. 

Nellie McClung is said to have used the following argument in 1915, as part of the fight for women’s right to vote

(otherwise known as women’s suffrage):

An individual pledge for the Women’s Christian

Temperance Union, signed in 1917. The union had been active in North America since the 1870s.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool #1 Grain Elevator, built in 1925 after the formation of a voluntary prairie wheat pool, in which farmers would cooperatively

own the grain handling systems. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool had the support of earlier farmer

collectives, like the United Grain Growers.

"I submit that the Government exists to

provide for the needs of the people, and when it comes to choice between profits and property rights on the one hand and human welfare on the other, there should be no hesitation whatsoever in saying that we are going to place the human welfare consideration first and let property rights and financial interests fare as best they may."

J.S. Woodsworth, 1921

In 1921, Manitoba voters elected J.S. Woodsworth to the House of Commons as an independent candidate, under

the slogan “Human Needs Over Property Rights”. The following quote is part of his political platform:

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King signing an agreement for Canada’s first Old Age Pensions on May 19,

1928 in Saskatchewan. J.S. Woodsworth advocated for pensions for years, and King promised he would pass this legislation if he won a majority government in 1926. He

did.