Great Depression Essay Grade 10 history

The Great Depression:
The Worst Of Canada 's Society

Eric Xie February 21, 2014 Mr. Vander Meulen CHC 2D1-02

Outline

The Great Depression brought out the worse in Canadian society.

I. Introduction

II. Government response a. Unaccustomed b. Bennett 's Response c. New Deal

III. Corruption in Society a. Cheating b. Horrible Living Conditions c. unmoral acts

IV. Concession a. Relief payments b. Feeding the unemployed/homeless

V. Unemployment a. Low Wages/ little jobs b. Deportation c. untouchables

VI. Conclusion

During the 1920s Canada 's production in farm produce, forest products, and manufactured goods were at a all time high. Everything at this time was credit based in the 1920s and people became frightened of the credit-based expansion. On October 1929 the New York stock market crashed, this impacted Canada in a gruesome way as Canada depended on trade. People began to lose their jobs, and therefore have no money, and began to do unspeakable things in order to survive day after day. The government at this time attempted to do something for Canada during The Great Depression but did not do anything worth-while to help Canada 's economy, but the things they did do resulted in a failure or did nothing. In Canada The Great Depression was particularly troublesome for Canada due to the unemployment in Canada where many lost their jobs and began to cause trouble across the country. Due to these factors Canada 's society became corrupt and The Great Depression had brought out the worst in Canada 's society.

During The Great Depression the government 's response to it, was something that brought out the worse in Canadian society. Initially, when the Great Depression had hit Canada the federal government had no idea what to do since the depression had never happened before in history, so there initial response to the depression was the just leave things such as welfare and relief plans in the hands of the provinces and municipalities to deal with everything. The provinces and municipalities were unable to handle it, due to the fact that they also were unaccustomed to the depression "agencies that were just as unaccustomed to the role and far less able to deal with the problems created by the depression"1. Because they were too late to act, resentment started to come forward from the citizens of Canada. When the Great Depression hit Canada in the beginning, R.B Bennett was in power at the time. His response to the Great Depression was to raise protective tariffs, which means to protect Canadian industries by raising the tariffs on foreign imports. With this, he also hoped for things such as lowering the prices of other countries imports, so Canada would be able to get back into the worlds trading markets. Though his plan to raise protective tariffs had completely failed. The next thing R.B Bennett attempted to do was to create something called the "New Deal"2 it proposed some things that people would have liked to have since many were unemployed and were look for work. Though in the end this plan did not even go into motion as he only promised these things if he were to be elected in again in the election of 1935. And he was not re-elected. "The Voters were suspicious of Bennett and his program. They felt it was just a trick to win the election - after all, he had done nothing during his first four years in Office."3 In the end Canada 's government was unable to provide support for Canada citizens, due to the fact that it was the first time Canada had experienced a depression, but Canada acted too late, made useless attempts to recover from the depression that resulted in failure, and for attempted personal gain of an individual. This shows how the government 's response to the depression brought out the worst of Canada.

The Years after the Great depression had hit Canada people had to resort to unethical ways to save money and to survive as they had lost their jobs and had no money for essential goods to survive. This brought out the corruption of society in Canada. During the Great depression people had less and less money so some had resort to cheating to save money. An example of cheating that had occurred during the Great Depression is when family tried to save money by using a razor blade to peel street car tickets in half so they would have double the amount for the price of one set of tickets. But with this method of cheating you would have to get luck and hope that the tickets would land right side up so no one would notice anything particular about the ticket. Also during the Great depression the living conditions of people in Canada began to decrease. An example of this were the jails in Sudbury, Ontario where the jails had become overcrowded and unsanitary. Making the living conditions for criminals almost too unlivable and inhumane to live in. "...stood the toilet and one basin. No Beds or bedding were provided...building was swarming with bed bugs... hot, dirty, verminous, smelly old building...two to three hundred mean to one toilet..."4 This shows the living conditions for prisoners in a jail was too unsanitary and inhumane to let prisoners live in conditions like those. After the Great Depression had hit Canada, people began to commit unmoral deeds just to survive. An example of a unmoral deed was when adults needed to survive they began to bargain their children for food, and services, and even some families had traded their children even before they are born! "...she was born in August so we swapped her for vegetables right out of the garden. I picked them myself before we drove in the wagon to the hospital."5 To conclude the corruption of society in Canada had brought out the worst in Canadian society due to people cheating to save money, creating inhumane and unsanitary living conditions for criminals to also save money, and doing unmoral deeds to survive.

Even though the Great Depression had brought the worst in Canadian society there are still things during the depression that brought out some good parts of the Canadian society. Things such as the government providing relief payments, but instead of giving money that people could have wasted on luxuries they made a intelligent move to giving relief payments6 in goods instead. This shows that the government had made an intelligent move to try to help Canadian citizens. Another good thing that came out of the Great Depression was people feeding the homeless and unemployed. Things such as soup kitchens were places where people were guaranteed a warm meal as long they would have a ticket7. Nevertheless, even with these done things during the great depression that had brought out some a better aspects of Canadian society, the Great Depression still had brought out more the worst side of it rather than the good.

During the Great Depression unemployment was a factor the contributed to bring out the worst of Canadian society. During the times of the Great Depression the minimum wage at the time was 35 cents, though many were making less than the minimum wage."We got 15 cents an hour painting those broom handles and the minimum wage in the province at the time was 35 cents an hour"8 With this low of a minimum wage people were unable to support their families, and many had to resort to unmoral means to survive. Due to the high unemployment rates immigrants were singled out and discriminated against and forced to be deported from Canada. In the Great Depression Canada had thought of immigrants as just bothersome to keep in Canada. "...a grand total of deportations for the past years and a half of some 15,536, there were 9,446 who were deported simply because they had become publics charges"9. Being a public charge means that you rely on a government support, but in this case many immigrants had lost their jobs and had to rely on government relief to survive. This shows that Canadian society had discriminated upon immigrants that to rely on government support to survive and were forced to leave. Another reason why unemployment had brought out the worst in the Canada society was because of people called "untouchables"10. These people began to become a menace to the safety of railway communities and authorities did not do much to protect these citizens since arresting them would be too expensive as it costs 1 dollar a day to keep them in a jail. Because of untouchables and many provinces trying to save money this resulted in citizens being endangered in the presence of the untouchables. Due to unemployment, it was big factor that caused Canada society to show the worst of it, the things that people and the government were unimaginable. The government did not rise minimum wages, so people had to do unmoral deeds to survive because they had little or no money, discrimination against immigrants because many were on government support, and the government had risked the safety of its citizens when they refused to do anything about homeless people roaming around Canada as it was too expensive. Unemployment was a factor that brought out the worse in Canadian society.

In conclusion, the Great depression did in fact bring out the worst in Canadian society. First off government 's initial response and the things they had tried to do to combat the depression all ended up in failure. Secondly due to the depression people became unemployed and had to resulted to do unmoral deeds to survive and save what money they had left. Lastly unemployment was key part of the depression where many people had lost their jobs, and even if some people kept their jobs many were making under the minimum wage, and immigrants were singled out and forced out of Canada. In the end the Great Depression had truly marked a dark time for Canadian society as more of the bad aspects were brought out during those times.

Bibliography

Abella, I, D. Bercuson, R. C. Brown J. L. Granatstein, B. Neatby. Twentieth Century Canada, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983. 51-54.

Bliss, J. M. Canadian History in Documents, 1763-1966. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1966. 47-50.

Braithwaite, Max. The Hungry Thirties. Toronto: Natural Science of Canada Ltd, 1977. 31-32.

Broadfoot, Barry. The Ten Lost Years, 1929-1939. Toronto: Doubleday, 1973. 1-9.

Evans, Allan, I. L. Martinello. Canada 's Century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978. 34

Liversedge, Ronald. Recollections of the On to Ottawa Trek. Ed. Victor Hoar. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1978. 39-46.

Mennill, Paul. The Depression Years: Canada in the 1930s, Canada: Prentice-Hall, 1978. 10-30.

Singer, Barnett. The Great Depression. Don Mills: Collier-Macmillan Canada, 1974. 35.

Thompson, John H. Allen Seager. Canada 1929-1939: Decades of Discord. Toronto: McClelland and Steward, 1985. 36-38.

Young Walter D. Democracy and Discontent. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969. 33.

Bibliography: Abella, I, D. Bercuson, R. C. Brown J. L. Granatstein, B. Neatby. Twentieth Century Canada, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983. 51-54. Bliss, J. M. Canadian History in Documents, 1763-1966. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1966. 47-50. Braithwaite, Max. The Hungry Thirties. Toronto: Natural Science of Canada Ltd, 1977. 31-32. Broadfoot, Barry. The Ten Lost Years, 1929-1939. Toronto: Doubleday, 1973. 1-9. Evans, Allan, I. L. Martinello. Canada 's Century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978. 34 Liversedge, Ronald. Recollections of the On to Ottawa Trek. Ed. Victor Hoar. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1978. 39-46. Mennill, Paul. The Depression Years: Canada in the 1930s, Canada: Prentice-Hall, 1978. 10-30. Singer, Barnett. The Great Depression. Don Mills: Collier-Macmillan Canada, 1974. 35. Thompson, John H. Allen Seager. Canada 1929-1939: Decades of Discord. Toronto: McClelland and Steward, 1985. 36-38. Young Walter D. Democracy and Discontent. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969. 33.