Canada in the Great Depression

The whole world was affected tremendously by the great depression, but Canada was one of the hardest hit nations. Exports being a large part of Canada's income, it was because of the damage done to world trade that Canada suffered so greatly. At the height of the depression, in 1933, 30% of the labour force was unemployed and 20% of all Canadians were dependent on government relief for survival. Did the government do enough to fix this? Most people certainly didn't think so. The relief that the government provided for families was not satisfactory. The relief camps for single, unemployed men were a complete mess. Both Prime Minister Bennett and King didn't treat the depression as seriously as they should have.

As the unemployment rate skyrocketed, earnings dropped during the depression but the cost for living dropped faster. So although most people in Canada were facing very difficult times during the great depression, there were still people who were living life as if the depression had never come, some were even better off than they had been before. Those with no jobs were always in search for a means of survival, thinking on a day to day basis. The Government, instead of trying to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor almost completely ignored the problem. The soaring unemployment rate was an overlooked, and the federal government gave the provincial government the responsibility to cope with it. This lead to further problems as the provinces were not able to handle this crisis, especially the 4 west provinces. The Americans chose a different route. They created jobs more jobs and this elevated the morale of the American people. Their results were much better than those of Canada.

What the provincial government established as relief for families was completely improper. To gain the relief there were pointless embarrassing procedures involved such as removing telephone from your house and turning in your liquor permit and driver's license. Relief rates given to families varied greatly, anywhere from $3.50 in one city to $8.50 in another. This was nowhere close to what was required to raise a family in those days.

The federal government set up many relief camps across the country for unemployed men. These men were expected to work 44 hours on such projects as building roads or planting trees in a week and were given 20 cents a day allowance, 3 meals a day and a place to sleep. The camps were set up so as to keep these young men away from the cities they would hang about, where they were considered a potential danger to the community rather than for their benefit.

The situation and circumstances in the United States were not much different from those of Canada at that time, but the U.S. government tried to minimize the poverty in the great depression while the Canadian government barely did anything to stop the problem. The people at the time were very unsatisfied by what their government was doing to help them. There would have been much better results if the government had chosen to try and help the people through a difficult time.