Chapter 3:

The Roaring Twenties

An Uneasy Adjustment Early in 1919, most soldiers returned from the war to

find that there were:

1. no steady pensions for veterans

2. No special medical services for those wounded in the war

3. And above all, few jobs Many employers had grown rich during the war

though the veterans made the sacrifices. Many who had jobs were dissatisfied: labour unions

had agreed to reduce pay as patriotic duty to the war effort.

After the war, costs soared, wages not enough.

Workers Respond The idea of workers joining together to demand

improved working conditions spread from the Bolshevic Revolution (1917) in Russia.

In 1919, workers in Canada had no unemployment insurance, compensation for injuries, or pensions.

Cdn workers joined together to form trade unions to gain improved housing, job training programs, higher wages (85 cents/hour), and shorter working hours (8 hour day).

By organizing unions they could make demands heard and strike when agreed to by members.

Communism in Russia

In 1917, a group of communists (Bolshevics) overthrew the gov’t in a violent revolution.

They believed that everyone in a community, including workers, should own and control the production and distribution of goods.

Cdns feared the spread of communism when Cdns workers formed unions – Red Scare

Winnipeg General Strike In 1919, 30,000 workers walked off the job in

Winnipeg, followed by Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

In Winnipeg, it spread to many industries and became a general strike – whole city shut down

Fear of a Communist revolution was high. June 21 1919, violence erupts when large crowd

protests the arrest of 10 strike leaders. Street car overturned & set on fire, yada yada yada,

Mounties charge, 1 killed, 30 wounded, 100s arrested – Bloody Saturday.

What was the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand?

Outcomes Strike drew attention to social & economic

problems. Labour leaders became more involved in

politics, and pro-worker political parties became increasingly popular – Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which in 1961 became the NDP.

Many fams never recovered from their financial losses.

Some workers found that they no longer had jobs to go back to.

Federalism

Canada’s Growing Independence

Chanak Affair – Halibut Treaty – King – Bing Crisis – Balfour Report – Statute of Westminster –

1921 Federal Election

Mackenzie King Meighen

THE ECONOMY IMPROVES Canada began the 1920s in economic depression,

but by mid decade, economy improved Wheat, pulp and paper mills, mining began to boom Expansion of industry meant higher demand for

hydroelectric power

1.) The United States Invests in Canada’s Economy

2.) Bootlegging Across the Border

3.) Urbanization

Prohibition

1870s:Canada is in economic depression, but alcohol is a flourishing industry. Toronto has approximately one bar for every 150 residents and Montreal boasts a bar per 70 citizens. They sell Caribbean rum and locally brewed whisky for high profits. Drink becomes responsible for acts of disorderly conduct, and city jailhouses fill with people charges with intemperance, the act of excessive drinking.

The effects of alcohol becomes the focus of prohibition campaigns by women's groups like the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the United Farm Women of Alberta.

A group of churchwomen from Picton, Ont., ask their city council to stop selling tavern licences and ask citizens to abstain from alcohol. Their requests are denied as the profits from liquor sales are too high to ignore.

Undeterred, they take their fight to Ottawa. They get no support from Opposition leader John A. Macdonald, a devout drinker. They potentially find help from Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, but their cause does not advance as women cannot vote and politicians have little to gain from supporting the cause.

1901:PEI is the first Canadian province to achieve prohibition. The remaining provinces are by the end of the First World War.

April 30, 1904:A Toronto West End neighbourhood goes dry to end drunken rowdiness. Residents of West Toronto, now called the Junction, ban alcohol to stop fights between men working in the railway stockyards.

1920s:Prohibition is widespread in Canada. Details vary between provinces, but most drinking establishments are closed and the sale of alcohol is forbidden with some private exceptions.

The sale of alcohol flourishes nationwide under several different guises. Illegal drinking establishments, known as speakeasies, spring up everywhere. In some provinces, people who claim to be ill can buy alcohol with a doctor's prescription.

Liquor barrels emptied into the lake at Elk lake, Ontario, during Prohibition

The prescription system is widely abused, a point noticed most during the Christmas holiday season with long lineups at neighbourhood drugstores.

In 1920, British Columbia votes to make alcohol available through the government. Manitoba and Saskatchewan follow a year later. The remaining provinces vote against prohibition by 1930, with the exception of P.E.I., which stays dry until 1948.

Canada's first sports hero, Edward "Ned" Hanlan, the Toronto "Boy in Blue," was famous among sporting crowds on both sides of the Atlantic and as far away as Australia. Legend has it that Ned began his rowing career by bootlegging liquor across Lake Ontario to his father's bar. By the age of 20 he had won the Ontario single sculls championship.

The United States remains under strict prohibition until 1933. The ban is intended to reduce crime, solve social problems and improve the health of American citizens. Instead, alcohol becomes more popular, creating an underground economy of booze smugglers and rumrunners.

1933:Prohibition ends in the United States.