The Canadian Great Depression
The Great Depression. Beginning on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, when the value of the New York stock market fell dramatically, and ending in 1939, the Great Depression was a time when Canadians suffered unprecedented levels of poverty due to unemployment. In Canada, centralized administrations were developed, such as the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Wheat Board, to aid the national government in facilitating, monitoring, and guiding the country's economy and business ('Great Depression'). Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu) Server at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca Port 80. The outbreak of the Great Depression in the fall of 1929 caused much economic hardship in Newfoundland and Labrador. Most damaging was a breakdown in world trade, which caused the country's revenue to plummet.
The monoculture of Prairie farming was effectively vapourized by the Crash and the Dust Bowl. In British Columbia, the company towns and logging camps that relied on transient labour (much of it comprised of single males) were likewise hit hard.
In the 1920s, commodities — such as wheat — and lumber products, including newsprint, were particularly important. In 1930, U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised duties on many imports to historically high levels. This led to retaliatory tariffs and a drastic reduction of trade around the world. Unemployment reached an average of 32 per cent in Canadian cities.
The municipalities dispensed much-needed relief on a cheeseparing basis that made no effort to maintain the dignity of the recipients. During the early 1930s, constant political struggle occurred between the and the provincial governments, but also between the provincial governments and the municipalities. The federal government refused to expend money on relieving unemployment because of 'constitutional limitations.' Not until the 1935 election did the government in power pay much attention to the cries of the destitute. As for the provinces, they blamed their failure to act on the 'feds.'
A short-lived attempt by prime minister R.B. Bennett to copy Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was ultimately struck down by the Privy Council in London, which was still Canada’s ultimate Supreme Court. Instead, Canadians muddled through the crisis with a makeshift combination of private and public charity. Private citizens in wealthier provinces recognized the plight of Saskatchewan and sent hundreds of carloads of fruit, vegetables and clothing westward. Bennett made a habit of sending money from his personal fortune to those who wrote to him pleading for help. The government did construct relief camps for unemployed men, providing some low-wage work and alleviating the threat of large numbers of jobless in the cities. The state also used force to suppress social discontent, most famously in 1935, when the unemployed organized an “On-to-Ottawa Trek” from the west.
In 1930, Bennett created the Unemployment Relief Act which provided $20 million in monetary relief to the poor. The Unemployment Relief Act states: '[The money] shall be paid by the Dominion of the Province for distribution to the municipalities.for direct relief” ('Unemployment Relief Act'). Rational rose online. The money being used almost solely for direct relief was not very successful in re-starting the Canadian economy as a whole because money was being allocated to individuals not businesses. In contrast to Bennett, in 1932, Hoover provided monetary relief in the form of loans to businesses and banks instead of direct relief through the Reconstruction Finance Agency (Butkiewicz).
Perhaps America's response to the crash of October 29, 1929, was partly out of guilt for creating it. America led the world in stock trading that day, since throughout the 1920s it had created the paradox of stocks inflated beyond their genuine value.
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His counterpart in the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), launched a “New Deal” program shortly after his election in 1933, aimed at stimulating the economy through spending. This was heresy, in the context of conservative economic thinking, but it was attractive to legislators and civil servants because it put them in a position to act rather than defend inaction. Even Bennett seemed changed by this example. Beginning in January 1935, he endorsed economic intervention by the federal government.
Thus, the stage was being set for a massive economic collapse by inflated currencies, the popularizing of gambling on the stock exchange, over-extension of household and industrial credit, heavy capital investment in machinery and buildings, a teetering international monetary and capital network, and a bubble in the commodities exchanges. When trade on the New York Stock Exchange crashed on Black Tuesday, 24 October 1929, the die was cast.
Canada, lacking such a charismatic figure, marched down a much longer road to economic recovery.
Canadian Encyclopedia The Great Depression
A third of Canada’s Gross came from exports, therefore the country was hard hit by the collapse in world trade. The four western provinces, which depended almost exclusively on primary-product exports, were the most seriously affected. Farms in the west such as this one were devastated not only by erosion but also by droughts and plagues of insects (courtesy Saskatchewan Archives Board/Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Collection). The economic problems were made worse on the Prairies by years of, as well plagues of grasshoppers and hail storms, which caused huge crop failures. Experienced the lowest price for wheat in recorded history and saw provincial income plummet by 90% within two years, forcing 66% of the rural population onto relief. The other western provinces were technically bankrupt from 1932 onwards.
Great Depression Facts
The American Presidency Project. N.p., 22 Jan. Hoover, Herbert. 'Hoover's Radio Address.' Hoover Archives. N.p., 12 Feb. Mackenzie King, M.
Historica Canada. Article published July 11, 2013; last modified September 10, 2018. • • • TURABIAN 8TH EDITION • James Struthers, The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. 'Great Depression', last modified September 10, 2018, •.
It was the forerunner of today's New Democratic Party. In addition, other reform movements started such as the Social Credit in Alberta in 1935. Bennett, towards the end of his tenure as Conservative Prime Minister, said as he introduced his new deal, 'If we cannot abolish the dole, we should abolish the system.' The pressure on Prime Minister Mackenzie King's government to bring about social advances required a centralizing of power in order to afford these new programmes. As the depression deepened it showed the lopsidedness of Confederation.