The Growling Twenties

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Recommended: Economic and social impact on "Canada" from World War 1

Even though WWI allowed for the creation of many jobs, including jobs for women, once the war ended, soldiers returned home to find themselves jobless and women returned to their house-wives role. With a debt of $1,665,576,000, Canada already had an economic disadvantage at the turn of the decade. (Canada’s Economy Effected by WW1-evidence) Canada’s post-war economy had caused events such as the Winnipeg General Strike and highly increased the unemployment rate until late in the 1920s.
The economic boom did not affect everyone equally. Even though people had much less knowledge in racial and social differences in the past, it is not an excuse for the treatment some people received for the sole reason of being different. The war caused xenophobia, the fear of diverse cultures in a community, which resulted in immigrants and First Nations people being treated more unfairly and a movement towards sterilization based on the concept of eugenics. Immigrants (especially of Asian origins) that have arrived in Canada well before the war were already living hard lives due to rules such as the “continuous journey” rule and acts such as the Chinese Head Tax. The war took the right to vote away from many immigrants, even imprisoning some of them on suspicion of treason. The 1920s were no better, the Chinese Immigration Act being passed, which prohibited all Chinese immigrants except diplomats, students, children of Canadians and an investor class. Aside from protests from the Chinese community in Canada, there were virtually no voices of opposition. Japanese men were paid 1/2- to 2/3 of what white labour earn for the same type of labour. The Opium and Narcotic Drug Act provided for the deportation of “domiciled aliens” (i.e. immigra...

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... bank in form of credit and investing in the stock market. The “get rich quickly” philosophy at the time had people taking advantage of the high demand of products and, as more people started buying stocks, their prices rose. Using credit, people started investing on margin, investing money they did not have in hopes of paying with money they might not get. The graph below shows the rise and fall of the Dow stock average. From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400, creating many new millionaires. During November of 1929, the Dow sank from 400 to 145. In just three days, over $5 billion worth of market capitalization had been erased from stocks that were trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (The Bubble Bubble-evidence) The American stock market crash heavily affected Canada’s stock market, ultimately leading the world into the Great Depression.

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