2. The Depression Sets In
• RB Bennett had just taken over as PM of
Canada
• Bennett promised to end unemployment
• He would use tariffs to blast onto the
world market
• Spent $20 million on the provinces for
“make work” projects
3. Depression Sets In
• By 1933 the depression was worsening
still
• Hundreds and thousands of farms and
businesses were ruined
• Mines, mills and factories from coast to
coast were shutting down
• A quarter of all Canadians were out of
work
• In 1928 farmers had purchased 17,000
tractors, in 1932, 832 were bought
5. The railway
• For Canada, railways had represented
growth and development
• In the 1930’s they represented despair
• Thousands of men rode the
train back and forth across
Canada in search of work this
Is known as “Riding the Rods”
Or “Riding the Rails”.
• Transients were considered
bums or hobos
6. Government Relief Camps
• The provinces could not cope with
unemployed workers
• Major General AGL McNaughton, head of
the Canadian Army came up with the idea
of relief camps. He is also responsible for
inventing an early form of Radar, which
he sold to the government for $1.
• He calculated that for $1 a day including
20 cents pay a man could be housed, fed
and put to work with simple tools
7. Government Relief Camps
• At first everyone welcomed the idea
• The mood soon changed
• Liberals branded Bennett a dictator with
Army run camps characterizing his rule
• Some termed them slave camps
• Men felt like they were being
cheated of their lives and
working for no reason
8. On to Ottawa Trek
• In April, 1935 communist organizers persuaded
half the 7000 workers in BC to strike for work
and wages
• Having no success in
Vancouver they decided
to lobby the federal
government
• BC strikers would lead
unemployed people
from Vancouver to Ottawa
9. On to Ottawa Trek
• The 1200 young men who began the trip
grew at every stop
• The government viewed the trek as a start
of a revolution
• The government decided the trekkers
should be stopped in Regina
10. On to Ottawa Trek
• Regina was chosen because it was the
location of RCMP headquarters
• The trek was halted and the leaders were
allowed to continue on to Ottawa
• Bennett was appalled
• Strikers in Ottawa remained peaceful for a
few days. Under the close eye of the
RCMP they remain calm in Regina also.
11. On to Ottawa Trek
•
•
•
•
Rallies were held in Regina’s Market Square
Suddenly violence erupted
“Tracking the Trekkers”
By midnight a policeman was dead and 80
people were injured
• Bennett later insisted that he had defeated a
communist revolution
• Led to the Bennett government being
defeated in the fall of 1935
12. Dust bowl
• Bennett's tariffs helped out Manufacturers but not
farmers
• The 1930’s brought economic and natural disaster to
the prairies
• The drought of 1929
continued and by 1931 the
topsoil of Southern Alberta
and Saskatchewan began to
blow away in the wind. This
is worst in the area known as
Pallisar’s Triangle a region
that never should have been
used as farm land.
13. Dust bowl
• Dust clouds were blown so far they could
feel the dust on the ships in the Atlantic
Ocean
• In 1932, a plague of grasshoppers
devoured every green living thing
• The next year it was wheat rust and frost,
followed by drought and hail
• Farmers often lived off a bag of flour and
a few vegetables to serve an entire family
16. No Progress
• In 1930, Canadians had voted for Bennett
because he had promised them a cure for
the depression.
• By 1932 four provinces were bankrupt
• The liberals did not have the solution
either.
• Canadians were looking for something
new to ease the suffering.
17. Social Credit
• In 1932, William Aberhart from Alberta
turned Social Credit into a political
movement
• Stated that it was the difference between
the price paid to the producer and the
price paid by the consumer which led to
poverty
• This difference would have to be made up
by the government
18. Cooperative Commonwealth
Federation
• Meant to replace the injustice of capitalism
• JS Woodsworth was the leader
• Organized infighting Labor parties, along
with the progressives into the CCF
• Outlined its policies in a document known
as the Regina Manifesto
• Gained much popularity in Canada
21. New Deal
•
•
•
•
Introduced in US by Franklin Roosevelt
Canadians were exposed to him via radio
Even Bennett was impressed
The New Deal of 1935 called for
unemployment insurance, minimum
wage, maximum hours, marketing boards
to raise farm prices and government
intervention
23. Election 1935
• The liberals won the election of 1935 easily
following Bennett and the conservatives
inability to lift Canada from the
depression
• In 1938 King and the Liberals put the bank
of Canada under government control
• The economy was beginning to improve
under a new reciprocity agreement with
the United States