CANADA IN THE ROARING TWENTIES

1
CANADA IN THE ROARING TWENTIES

• UNIT 3

2
ECONOMY AND POLITICS

• Each region of Canada had developed its own
  problems in post-war Canada
• Maritimes
• Quebec
• Prairies

3
ECONOMY AND POLITICS

• MARITIMES
• Experienced a drop in production after the war,
• This drop caused a concern for a few reasons
• High freight rates on railways
• Decline in demand for fish, coal, lumber and farm
  goods
• Stoppage of railway building through the East
• High unemployment rates

4
ECONOMY AND POLITICS

• Maritime provinces formed the Maritime Rights
  Movement whose sole interest was to
• Increase subsidies to the provinces
• Encourage international trade through Maritime
  ports
• Protect Maritime goods through high tariffs

5
ECONOMY AND POLITICS

• QUEBEC
• Still embittered about Conscription in 1917,
  Quebec formed their own political party within
  Quebec Action Nationale led by Abbe Groulx
• This party called for the protection of
  French-Canadian culture
• French ownership of large provincial corporations
  (hydro)
• Opposed foreign investment in Quebec
• Supported traditional French rural life and
  values

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ECONOMY AND POLITICS

• PRAIRIES
• Began experiencing problems directly after the
  end of the war, when wheat production/demand
  stopped
• Creation of the National Progressive Party led by
  Thomas A. Crerar
• Wanted a lower cost of freight and tariffs
  manufactured products
• Allow voters to propose laws and be able to
  recall MPs who are not representing their
  concerns

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PROSPERITY AND CHANGE

• By 1923-24 the post-war economic slump was
  beginning to lift and Canadian wheat,
  manufactured goods and natural resources - iron
  ore, nickel, zinc, copper were in high demand
  again
• Pulp and paper industry was supplying the large
  American market
• Automobile industry grew

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PROSPERITY AND CHANGE

• Manufactured goods, labour-saving devices also
  grew (radios, record players, toasters, washing
  machines, electric irons)
• Largest manufacturing area was in the Montreal
  Toronto Windsor corridor
• Toronto and Montreal were large producers before
  the war, but their production increased
  dramatically at this time

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PROSPERITY AND CHANGE

• Some cities specialized in production of certain
  goods
• Hamilton iron and steel
• Kitchener rubber products and furniture
• Windsor cars, trucks, car parts
• American car companies set up branch plants in
  Canada to avoid tariffs on imported carriages (up
  to 35 tariff on top of cost)
• Cars built in Canada receive preferential tariff
  treatment when sent throughout the Empire

10
PROSPERITY AND CHANGE

• Farming communities saw uneven prosperity
• Some left their farms for work in the cities,
  while others went into debt to buy the latest
  tractors and threshers
• Wheat farmers were earning record amounts by the
  mid-1920s
• Success of some wheat farmers attracted
  inexperienced farmers to the West these used
  farming methods that rapidly exhausted the soil

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PROSPERITY AND CHANGE

• The Maritime provinces experienced economic booms
  in some areas and bust in others
• Coal mining was dropping because of the switch to
  oil or electricity
• Construction and tourism industries grew
• Pulp and paper and other related industries also
  grew as markets opened up in Britain and the US
• Changes in railway protection rates for the
  Maritimes resulted in drops in coal and steel
  industries (rates increased by 25)

12
GOOD TIMES

• Technological advances enabled rural and city
  dwellers to become connected and their lives made
  slightly easier (telephone, radio, movies,
  automobiles, airplanes, electrical appliances)
• People who moved into the cities got jobs in the
  service industry (transportation, finance, public
  administration, hospitality)
• Wages rose for most people, many could buy things
  on credit, disposable income grew for spending on
  cars, radios and sewing machines

13
GOOD TIMES

• Roads were being built for the growing number of
  cars and trucks, airmail service for the mail
• Bush pilots were flying to and mapping the North
• Stocks (portions of a company purchased by the
  public) were being bought as peoples confidence
  in the economy increased
• This led to a stock market boom

14
LEISURE TIMES

• Growth of radio broadcasts in Canada meant that
  in 1929 there were 297 000 radios in homes where
  in 1923 there were only 10 000
• First North American broadcast was from Montreal
  on May 20, 1920 it was a music program
• The first radios needed headphones and controls
  were primitive and poor quality they improved
  rapidly

15
LEISURE TIMES

• Ted Rogers, a Canadian electrical engineer,
  developed the battery-less radio (worked
  through electrical current) and opened CFRB
  (Canadian Frequency Rogers Battery-less) from
  Toronto
• Most programs listened to came from the US (80
  of the shows)
• CBC (Canadian Broadcasting System) was created in
  1936 in response to concerns that too much
  American content was heard on Canadian radio
  (Aird Report)
• First Canadian program was Hockey Night in Canada
  with Foster Hewitt, occurring on March 22, 1923

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GROUP OF SEVEN

• Canadian artists who had developed an
  unconventional style of painting impressions of
  Canadian wilderness scenes with deep colours and
  broad, heavy strokes
• Influenced by one anothers talents and
  paintings, specifically Tom Thomson (died in
  1917), they formed the Group of Seven
• Members were Lawren Harris, JEH MacDonald,
  Franklin Carmicheal, Arthur Lismer, FH Varley, AY
  Jackson, Frank Johnston

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MOVIES

• Most popular form of entertainment
• Low cost and provided a feature presentation, a
  supporting movies and a Newsreel
• Minor boom in Canadian production in 1920s
  despite Canada had been producing promotional
  movies since 1897
• Influex of Hollywood style movies after Famous
  Players purchased Canadian Allen movie theatres
  in 1923
• Silent films used to exaggerate actions and
  occasional captions
• 1927 was the first talkie Al Jolson in the
  Jazz Singer

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LITERATURE

• Growth in this field for Canadian author
• Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little
  Town
• Mazo de la Roche, Jalna
• Morley Callaghan, Strange Fugitive
• Leslie McFarlane (pseudonym of Franklin W.
  Dixon), Hardy Boys
• These people contributed to a new style of
  Canadian writing and publishing, later to
  influence generations of authors

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SPORTS

• Often referred to as Canadas Golden Age of
  Sports
• The International Fishermans Trophy in 1921 went
  to the Canadian Bluenose after beating an
  American ship
• Growth of hockey as the new national pastime,
  which influenced cities and towns across the
  nation, as well as the Americans who contributed
  3 teams to the National Hockey League

20
SPORTS

• Howie Morenz, most popular player at the time (on
  the Montreal Canadiens) and won the Hart Trophy 3
  times in the 1920s
• Lionel Conacher was an all-round athelete
  (football, boxing, wrestling, baseball, lacrosse
  and hockey)
• His teams won the Grey Cup in 1921 and the
  International League pennant in 1926 (baseball)
• He won the Canadian light-weight boxing
  championship and the Ontario wrestling
  championship

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1928 OLYMPICS

• Amsterdam, Holland
• Track and field took several medals in a number
  of events
• Fanny Bobby Rosenfield (Russian-born
  immigrants) won Gold in the 100 metre dash and
  Silver in the 4 x 100 relay
• Percy Williams won Gold in the 100 metre and 200
  metre dash there was also a promotional aspect
  to this a chocolate bar was named after him
  Our Percy

22
QUALITY OF LIFE

• Technological advances such as electrical
  appliances reduced chore times
• Flappers were city dweller women who were
  living a lifestyle most believed inappropriate
  for women at the time
• Clothing for women had become more equal to the
  mens style with short, bobbed hair, raised
  skirts and more revealing clothing
• Canadian scientist Frederick Banting and his
  partner, Charles Best, discovered insulin, which
  helped control diabetes

23
IMMIGRATION AND INTOLERANCE

• Many British-Protestant Canadians were
  demonstrating their intolerance to Eastern
  Europeans and to visible minorities, whether
  Canadian-born or not
• The activities of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in
  Canada in the 1920s and 1930s influenced some of
  the policies of the provincial governments
• Attempts made to anglicize many non-white
  members of communities through education in
  special schools or through missionary work

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IMMIGRATION AND INTOLERANCE

• NATIVE PEOPLE
• Outlawed the Potlatch and the Sun Dance
• Children were taken and placed in residential
  schools in order to assimilate the younger
  generations
• Indian Act of 1920 banned certain types of native
  government ensured complete dependence on
  Canadian government
• Reserve Indians could not vote
• Women were excluded from selecting chiefs
• Chief Deskadeh (F.O. Loft) went to the British
  government and League of Nations to gain
  independence, but it was not granted

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PROHIBITION

• Many women who had recently received the vote
  lobbied for prohibition (ban on the production
  and sale of alcohol)
• It was believed by the temperance movements that
  alcohol was the center of societys ills
  domestic violence, crime rates
• Felt it was immoral to drink alcohol when the
  grain could be used for food products

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PROHIBITION

• Federal government controls importing,
  manufacture and export of alcohol provinces
  control licensing, sale and consumption
• Federal government legislated in 1918-1919 that
  alcohol production stop
• By 1917, all provinces except Quebec were under
  prohibition

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PROHIBITION

• Laws were ignored by a large portion of
  Canadians
• Bootleggers (people who made and sold alcohol
  illegally) made millions of dollars, provinces
  lost tax dollars, so it was slowly repealed

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PROHIBITION

• Benefits of prohibition
• Crime rate dropped
• Arrest and drunkenness down 93
• Expensive from bootleggers
• Fewer police needed
• Some jails closed
• More money went home to families
• Domestic violence down
• More productivity at work