The Canadian Government's Economic Policies in Response to The Great Depression The Depression was a decade of abject misery. Everything ill seemed to
have fallen at once: stock market crashed; demand for goods dropped
and exports plummeted; production lines stopped, factories closed, and
unemployment rate skyrocket; even drought, famine, and other natural
disasters decided to make themselves known. It was a time of the most
desperate poverty Canada had ever known. The Canadian government tried
its best to answer the challenges the Depression had presented. The
federal government tried to provide everyone with social assistance
payments and relief work camp. However, due to the tight budget of the
government and the vast number of people needing assistance, everyone
was only given enough for mere survival. On a larger scale, the
Canadian government also failed to improve the economy with its
reluctance to adopt encouraging policies; the policies Canada did
adopt only damaged the economy even more. With all of these evidences,
I believe Canadian government had the minimum success in its attempts
to deal with the depression.
Faced with the Depression, the Canadian government did try to provide
all the citizens with the basic necessities. The federal government
provided “emergency assistance payments” according to Barry
Broadfoot’s book Ten Lost Years, “[T]he city family got $15 a month
and the country family got $10 a month…”. Citizens could also get food
from the various government organizations and soup kitchens in cities
like Vancouver. There were also various relief work camps nation wide.
Hollingsworth and Tyyska discuss the employment of women in their article, both wage work and work performed outside of the “paid labour force.” (14). They also look at work discrimination of women based on gender and marital status. They argue that disapproval of married women working for wages during the Depression was expressed not only by those in position of power, such as politicians, but also by the general public and labour unions. They suggest that the number of women in the workforce increased as more young wives stayed working until the birth of their first child and older women entered the workforce in response to depression based deprivation. Hollingsworth and Tyyska also give examples of work that married women did that was an extension of their domestic duties such as babysitting for working mothers or taking in laundry. They also state that some women took in boarders, sold extra produce from gardens, or ran make-shift restaurant operations out of their homes.
During the Great Depression of the 1930's, Canada's Prairie provinces suffered more than any other area in Canada. This time frame brought for the farmers many years of droughts and grasshopper plagues, as each year got worse without any rainfall whatsoever. The impact of the Great Depression on the Prairie provinces was devastating and it's impact on the region was social, political and economical. During this period unemployment reached high levels, prices of products were falling and purchasing power was getting very weak. To try to help out unemployed people, mostly men, the government introduced relief camps.
The economic costs of war were high since many European cities, towns, farms, ports, railways, roads, ships, and factories had been destroyed. Many European governments had borrowed a lot of money from the U.S., and so by 1918 they owed more than $7 billion (U.S.) to the United States. Their economies were devastated. In 1919, world production of manufactured goods plummeted by 25%, and in Russia, production had dropped by 80%. After the war, man countries restricted international trade while they tried to rebuild.
Canadians were frustrating, wonderful, and hard. Soldiers returning from the war expected jobs, but were faced with unemployment, inflation and strikes. Inflation had doubled the cost of living where wages had not and those fortunate to be employed still faced immense financial difficulty. Many people joined unions for better pay and working conditions, 1919 saw the most strikes at a staggering three hundred and six, people were angry and discontented. The 1920s were a time of crime corruption and extreme poverty, yet by mid era difficult conditions began to improve. Foreign investors gained confidence in Canada and as a result new industries were developed, The twenties really did 'roar' and with this boom of change Canada underwent the transformation that was the gateway to the future.
On the day of October 29, 1929 the Great Depression had begun. This was due to the worth of the New York stock market falling intensely. The Great Depression was a time when Canadians suffered extraordinary levels of poverty due to unemployment. It shaped Canadian’s political views, and also their views about their country and role of the government. Canadians joined together in various new political parties, labor groups and other organizations that represented detailed regional, economic or political interest. Canadians scrambled through the crisis with a makeshift blend of private and public charity. Private Citizens in wealthier provinces recognized the dilemma of Saskatchewan and sent hundreds of carloads of fruit, vegetables and clothing westward. This showed that Canada is a crew of kind and supportive individuals.
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 important for governments to find methods to deal with the depression, but the Canadian government wasn't very successful in its attempts to deal with the Great Depression.
“On the morning of October 29, 1929, panicked voices shouted over one another. Here and there, men leaned against the walls, hands over their faces as if trying to shut out the scene. In the street outside, a crowd had gathered, trying to learn the news. A man staggered out the door, clutching his hat in both hands. He looked as though he might weep. “It’s gone,“ he whispered, so quietly only the few closest to him heard. “It’s all gone.”# The term ‘Great Depression’ according to Kristin Brennan evokes black-and-white images of thin men in threadbare suits and worn-out shoes selling five-cent apples on city streets, of “grim-faced women lined up three deep to collect bread and milk at relief stations.”# The Great Depression of the 1930s was a devastating time toward many Canadians, where the collapse of the stock market was the beginning of the Depression, a period of severe economic and social hardship, massive unemployment, and terrible suffering.# The main causes of the Great Depression in Canada were overproduction, Canada’s Dependence on the United States, as well as the causes, there were the effects: unemployment and political consequences.
In the hype after World War 1, I doubt anyone would have foreseen an immense depression coming. As it turns out, that's what happened. Canadians all over Canada had to endure the catastrophes, and I believe Canadians responded ineffectively to the challenges of the Great Depression. The government responded ineffectively by increasing the chaos. As the Canadian government aggravated trek leaders by arresting them, trekkers began violently rioting. Furthermore, Individual Canadians during the Great Depression were inept. Many civilians violently protested. They fought the police and RCMP, broke windows, and turned over cars, creating further problems. Still, political parties did influence many Canadians. Like the Social Credit Party, they tried
The economic business cycle of the world is its own living and breathing entity expanding and contracting with imprecise balances involving supply and demand. The expansions and contractions also known as booms and recessions support a delicate equilibrium of checks and balances, employment and unemployment. The year 1929 marked the beginning of the downward spiral of this delicate economic balance known as The Great Depression of the United States of America. The Great Depression is by far the most significant economic event that occurred during the twentieth century making other depressions pale in comparison. As a result, it placed the world’s political and economic systems into a complete loss of credibility. What transforms an ordinary recession or business cycle into an authentic depression is a matter of dispute, which caused trepidation among economic theorists. Some claim the depression was the result of an extraordinary succession of errors in monetary procedure. Historians stress structural factors such as massive bank failures and the stock market crash; economists hold responsible monetary factors such as the Federal Reserve’s actions when they contracted the currency distribution, and Britain's attempt to return their Gold Standard to pre-World War parities. Subsequently, there are the theorists such as the monetarists, who presume that it began as a normal recession, however many policy errors by the monetary establishment forced a reduction in the money supply, which worsened the economic condition, thereby turning the normal recession into the Great Depression. Others speculate that it was a failure of the free market or a failure of the government in their efforts to regulate interest rates, slow the occ...
The Great Depression in Canada posed many problems for Canadians. During this period the economy suffered, unemployment rates raised, and farmers struggled through the drought of the Dirty Thirties. The Great Depression truly was an uncontrollable force assisting the shape of present day Canada.
Many Canadians thought the depression was brought about by the wheat crop crash and not the stock market crash because many Canadians and farmers were dependent on the growth of wheat because it made up a majority of their exports, but seeing as the wheat provinces were hit with a severe drought the wheat crops crashed leaving many farmers out of jobs and money, causing a great affect on Canada. The causes of the great depression were due to over-production and over-expansion because Canadian companies expanded their industries of goods so that they could generate more profits. Yet economic activity shrank in the late 20’s and companies were left with a heavier debt and lack of...
Image not knowing when your next meal could be if there even was one coming. This is how your average Canadian felt during the great depression. Chewing gum turned into alpha alpha, meat pies turned into gopher pies the whole standard of life was lowered during the depression. If you were an unemployed male you were not wanted anywhere and at the same time companies were laying off workers more often than they would pay their workers that is underpaying their workers. What was the government doing while all these people struggled you might ask ? It seemed like the government was doing nothing . Which is exactly what Prime minister King was doing , nothing.
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 Canadian economy in the 1920’s had a rough start because of the post war problems, but it gradually began to pick up, it made a positive turn by developing new industries, as well, the average consumer income increased, which in the end allowed for a more optimistic country. First, the development of industries allows Canada to have a wider range of opportunities, and money entering the country. For example, it has been stated that: “Though the early 1920's were difficult conditions did improve by the mid 1920's. Foreign investors gained confidence in Canada and as a result new industries were developed. Canada had become the largest wheat exporter in the world” (Economy on the upswing). This shows that Canada had not only started off at a low point and moved forward, but they went above the needed and became number one in the world for a positive economic situation. Therefore this event was very beneficial and made a huge contribution towards a positive turn and optimism in Canada. The positive turn in economy was also created by the increased consumer income, this allowed Canada as a country to become more developed and maintain even more money. For example, in the mid 1920’s there was an economy boom which started to increa...
In the 1920 's just after World War 1, Canada experienced economic prosperity but a decade later it would all come crashing down. This decade was known as the Great Depression. During the period of the Great Depression, Canada underwent two political regimes which still didn 't help the country get out of the Depression. What makes this more interestingly is that the two regimes were at the opposite ends of the Canadian political spectrum yet neither parties had a clear framework for lifting Canada out of the Depression.