Depression In Canada

Intro

During the 1930’s, in the States the image of becoming rich from investing in stocks was the dream. Many people began investing huge amounts of money into stocks, many walked away rich while others empty handed but everyone didn’t see the stock market crash to happen. With everyone abusing the stock market, it finally crashed causing many people to be broke and on dept. With increasing tariffs, the import and export factor came to a halt. This lead Canada into the Great Depression, most of the people lost jobs and a pay cheque and many weren’t able to provide food on the table for their family. But what area suffered the most in Canada was the West Coast, the Maritimes, Central Canada, Prairies or the North? Here I will talk about how

The residence that lived in the Prairies source income was farming. The Prairies were flat therefore many people had big pieces of land that they used to grow crops like wheat. Before the depression, many countries wanted to recover from the 1st world war so they both Canada’s wheat. As wheat prices started to increase, many farmers purchased new equipment in order to keep up with the demand. “Suddenly in the early 1930s, France, Germany and Italy stopped trading wheat. Prices fell and Canada held its supplies of wheat waiting fro the prices to improve. The prices didn’t improve leading to bankruptcy in 1930”(Siamandas). In 1932, Wheat prices plummeted due to the oversupply with huge amounts in Argentina and Australia. Farm income was cut to half in Saskatchewan and Alberta. While in Manitoba cut farmer’s income to a dramatic 80%. Many farmers were caught in depts due to overproducing and investing in more land, machinery and better homes. Dust storms began in 1931 due to the sparse amounts of rain. Then a couple years later, temperatures increased causing droughts. Then the topsoil blew away due to the high amount of cultivating that occurred on the fields. In 1937, swarms of grasshoppers known as locusts ate shrubs and clothing. Some families survived by eating locusts while the majority of people packed their bags and moved to the city. During this time in the Prairies many farmers weren’t able to grow

The people that got annoyed by this expressed their feelings towards the government by protesting. They had jumped onto a freight train from British Colombia to hit Ottawa where they wanted to talk the B.R Bennett. Bennett stopped the train in Regina, Saskatchewan located in the Prairie’s, where they were all evicted off the train. The leaders went to Ottawa to negotiate with Bennett on their issues but weren’t successful. They returned to Regina to disband the strikers. “More than 300 RCMP dressed in riot gear were concealed in large moving vans parked on three sides of the square, with another 50 nearby on the horses”(Snider). Bennett had ordered to arrest the leaders of the Trek even though they were leaving. The police entered the group violently causing the Trekkers to respond with violence causing a riot. The riot ended up with one dead policeman and dozens on both sides being injured and the arrest of 130 Trekkers. The rest of the Trekkers were assisted in leaving