What were the political effects of the Depression?

•Depression caused many Cdns to ask gov’t for help.

• Cdns started to think differently about:• the role of gov’t • existing pol. Parties

•The Depression was a time period of great political change in Canada.

How did the government try to help Canadians?

King = PM for most of 20s

didn’t see DEP. coming

even after Crash, didn’t take prob. Seriously

refused to help municipal (local) gov’ts make relief payments

Lost election in 1930William Lyon Mackenzie King

Liberal Party

How did the government try to help Canadians?

R.B Bennett replaces King as PM

promised to help provinces with relief payments

won the election in 1930 raised taxes on imported

goods• to encourage local

production believed the econ. would

be fixed with these minor adjustments

Richard Bedford Bennett

Conservative Party

How did the government try to help Canadians?

By 1932, econ. still shrinking

Work Camps:• opened by Dept. of

Nat’l Defence Oct. 1932

• for single, unemployed and homeless men

• by 1935, more than 200 camps

• 170 000 men living in camps

Work Camp in British Columbia

How did the government try to help Canadians?

Conditions of work camps:• crowded• dirty• unnecessary work (?)

Each man received:• work clothes• soap and towel• a bed• 3 meals/day• use of shower & toilet• place to do laundry

Road construction project.

Work camp dormitory.

What new political parties did Canadians form?

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)• started 1932• blamed “big business” for

DEP.• ideas of socialism

gov’t should control business wrong that some Cdns get rich

while others are poor & hungry• support in Saskatchewan,

Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario

• mostly farmers and workers, some intellectuals

James Shaver Woodsworth

first leader of the CCF

What new political parties did Canadians form?

Social Credit Party• started in Western

Canada (1934)• blamed big

businesses from central Canada for farmers’ problems

• gov’t should give every man & woman $25/mth to live

William J. “Bible Bill” Aberhartfirst leader of the Social Credit

Party

What new political parties did Canadians form?

Union Nationale• started in Quebec• DEP affected French- speaking

farmers and workers more than English-speaking business men

• Liberals didn’t have any new ideas about how to deal w/ DEP.

• young Liberals joined conservative leader, Duplessis, to make the new party

• promised to control “big business” & won the election

• once in power: promoted FrCdn culture Roman Catholic Church farming blamed Ottawa (fed. gov’t) for

Quebec’s problems VERY SUCCESSFUL PARTY!

Maurice Duplessis• provincial leader of

Conservative Party in Quebec (1933-35)

• first leader of the Union Nationale (1936)

What new political parties did Canadians form?

Communist Party• not new but very little

success in 20s• tried to organize workers

into unions in the 30s• also tried to organize the

unemployed• gov’t didn’t like this ;

made membership illegal

• Buck arrested in 1931 and sent to prison

• members born outside of Canada were deported

Tim BuckLeader of the Canadian

Communist Party

What new political parties did Canadians form?

Reconstruction Party• supported by small

businesses, farmers• “big business”

treated workers unfairly

• last new party to join the 1935 federal election

• didn’t have a strong impact

Herbert Henry Stevens• originally part of R.B. Bennett’s

Conservative gov’t• first leader and founder of the

Reconstruction Party (1935)

How did some unemployed show their desire for change?

1935-- protest in B.C. work camps• frustrated with

boring life @ camps• wanted real jobs

with real wages• felt gov’t had

forgotten them

How did some unemployed show their desire for change?

Strike• 1800 men• left camps to

demonstrated in Vancouver, B.C.

• demands:1. $0.50/day min. wage2. safer working

conditions3. gov’t system of

unemployment insurance

4. voting rights gov’t refused all

demands

Workers on strike in Victoria Square, Vancouver

How did some unemployed show their desire for change?

On-to-Ottawa Trek• workers were

desperate and determined

• got on trains heading east to take their demands to the federal gov’t

• well supported by Cdn pop’n—given food across the rail lines Workers on train heading to Ottawa

How did some unemployed show their desire for change?

Regina riot / Market Square riot• Bennett afraid of how

many men would join the “trekers”

• 8 men invited to Ottawa to discuss demands PM rejected all them ordered trains stopped in

Regina, Saskatchewan leaders to be arrested

• violence broke out as trains arrived and RCMP tried to arrest leaders and trekkers

• one police officer killed, several hundred injured

• most workers returned to B.C.

How did Bennett react to the country’s frustration?

1934 policy changes• help farmers sell their

products • set up the Bank of Canada

1935 Radio Broadcasts :“New Deal” promises• inc. taxes for the rich (big

business)• lower farm debts• intro. min. wage• 8 hour work day• unemployment insurance• better old-age pensions

How did Canadians react to Bennett’s promises?

shocked• did he really care• is he trying to win the next

election? determined to change

the gov’t forced political parties to

think about the avg. Cdn’s real needs

voted for King (Liberal Party)• didn’t believe in the new parties• Bennett’s promises were “too little,

too late”• King promised to spend on “public

works projects”• promised unemployment insurance