Causes of the Depression
• Over Production and Expansion - Canada's companies expanded their industries so they could meet war demand. As European
industry recovered, Canadian industry and agriculture were overproducing causing prices to fall.
• Dependence on Commodity Exports - Canada's economy was overly dependent on commodity exports. As U.S. and European demand fell it created a significant drop in sales causing an
economical depression.
Causes of the Depression
• High Tariffs – in a effort to prop up Canadian products the national government raised tariffs. The protectionist strategy backfired when other countries imposed retaliatory tariffs in Canadian goods.. Like Smoot-Hawley tariffs made the problem worse.
• Too Much Credit - Canadians bought too much on lease and credit including stocks. Therefore when the stock market crashed (partly due to the margin buying), Canadians were in debt and faced a trying time as they attempted to sell their personal belongings or were having their half paid-off possessions repossessed.
W.L. McKenzie King
• Prime Minister (Liberal Party) of Canada from 1921 to 1930.
• First term struggle to work with the Progressive Party and his own Liberal Party, especially on the issue of tariffs (which prairie progressives wanted lowered).
• McKenzie King’s government presided over a period of unrest
among farmers in the Prairies as farm prices declined.
Black Tuesday
• Canada’s stock market (Toronto) was closely linked to the NYSE, thus when the U.S. market crashed so did the CSE
• 1929-1933: GNP fell 40% (37% US), unemployment rose to 27%, exports in wheat, minerals and timber fell by 50%.
• Under McKenzie King’s laissez-faire leadership the national government took minimal action to provide relief or encourage economic recovery. • Relief programs were the
responsibility of ill-equipped provincial governments.
R.B. Bennett
• Prime Minister (Conservative Party) of Canada from 1930 to 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years.
• Bennett tried to combat the depression by increasing trade within the British Empire and imposing tariffs for imports from outside the Empire. Known as the Imperial Preference Policy
• Conservative pro-business
Canadian Relief Camps
• October 1932, Bennett
establishes a network of relief camps for unemployed and homeless men.
• Run by the military.
• In return for bunkhouse
Canadian Relief Camps
• Critics argued that the federal government had established the camps in lieu of a program of work and wage increases. • Conditions in the camps were
abhorrent, not only because of the low pay, but the lack of recreational facilities, isolation from family and friends, poor quality food, and the use of military discipline.
On to Ottawa
• April 1935. After a two-month protest in Vancouver, B.C. camp strikers voted to travel east to Ottawa and take their grievances to the federal
government.
• Strikers’ demanded:
> Adequate first aid in the camps
> Extension of the Workmen’s Compensation Act to camp workers
> Repeal of Section 98 of the Criminal Code
Regina Riots
• Bennett invited trek leader Slim Evans to talks, on the condition that the 1600 strikers remain in Regina. (Where a
encampment of RCMP waited) • A public meeting in Market
Square announce a breakdown in talks
• At 8:00 PM a whistle signaled the beginning of an attack by police on strikers
