Canada Responds to The Great Depression

Social Response:Charity and Relief

• People coming together to treat their community members like family

• Ex: soup kitchens, donations, community action

Social Response:Protest

• Made demands on the government, forcing change in policy

• Ex: On to Ottawa, Regina Riots

Social Response:Distractions & Entertainment

• Became a unifying force within the country

• Ex: CBC radio shows, Dionne Quintuplets

Political Response

• Generally didn’t work

Political Response:W. L. M. King

• Essentially ignored the problem• Felt that the Great Depression was an

economic correction that would work itself out.

• Laissez faire economic policy• Outright refused to help provinces and

municipalities• Infamously said he wouldn’t give a “five

cent piece” to a Conservative provincial government

Political Response:R. B. Bennett (pt. 1)

• Out of touch with the gravity of the situation (millionaire who lived on the top floor of a Montreal hotel)

• Once said that “one of the greatest assets a man can have on entering life’s struggle is poverty

• Imposed tariffs, created work camps• His name became synonymous with the

depression

Bennett Buggy

Bennett’s Backyard

Bennett Blanket

Political Response:Regina Riot

• Bennett ordered the On-to Ottawa trains to stop in Regina, invited the leaders to Ottawa, hoping to calm things

• Talks were unsuccessful, Bennett attacked leaders as communist radicals.

• Bennett ordered the arrest of the men, and a riot broke out: one RCMP dead, several citizens injured

Political Response:R. B. Bennett (pt. 2)

• Followed US president Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program

• Bennett introduced millions of dollars in relief payments including:

• Unemployment insurance

• Raising minimum wage • Improved working conditions

• Creation of agricultural support programs

• Policies seen as “too little too late”

Political Response:New Political Parties

• Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)

• 1930’s witnessed the organization of workers into strong unions, especially in areas like the Prairies, and the West

• Farmers were the hardest hit, and they wanted political representation – someone to listen to them.  They wrote the Regina Manifesto, and fought for socialist ideas

• Rise of CCF – today’s NDP – fought for worker’s rights, social programs, relief

Political Response:New Political Parties

• Social Credit Party• was a grassroots conservative party that

believed strongly that he government should reimburse citizens with small payments when possible.

• Founder was William Aberhart, or “Bible Bill”

• Promised that every citizen would receive $25 if they voted for him, he did not fulfill his promise, however he was Premier of Alberta for over a decade

Political Response:New Political Parties

• Union nationale• Maurice Duplessis formed a party that

supported Quebec nationalism – roots of separatism

• Relied heavily on support of Catholic church, and traditional “French values”

• Premier for over 20 years