THE GREAT DEPRESSION

1929 - 1939
An Introduction

How do we go from this to this?

From Boom to Bust:

The Great Depression
1929-1939 Dirty Thirties
The Trigger: October 29th, 1929 - the good times of
the 1920s abruptly came to an end when the New
York Stock Market crashed, followed by stock crash
in Toronto. This day in 1929 was called Black
Tuesday (the stock crash was a symptom of other
economic problems)
The 1930s depression became a time of despair for
many Canadians as they lost their savings, their jobs,
their automobiles and their homes.
The Great Depression was the longest in human
history (10 years) and affected Canada and the rest
of the world!

WHAT WERE THE 5 MAIN

CAUSES OF THE GREAT
DEPRESSION IN CANADA?

REASON 1: Irresponsible spending and limited

government regulation during the 1920s paved the way
to the Stock market crash of 1929 & The Great
Depression in the 1930s:
Canadians were going into debt by the late 20s without
realizing it when times were good and living beyond their
means.
Buying stocks on the margin Buying goods on credit
and living beyond their means (what they could
realistically pay for at the time of purchase). Farmers
and businesses borrowed money from banks to pay for
equipment and labour (loans the couldnt repay after the
stock market crash of 1929).
Consequence: Resulted in major debt for the country,
banks, individuals and economic crisis. Businesses shut
down & people lost savings & jobs!

 Limited regulation enabled people

to use credit to live beyond their
means, take out loans, spend
unwisely, and accumulate large
debts.

REASON 2. Businesses were producing more goods than

they could actually sell.
Industries in the 1920s were expanding (with the change
from a war based industry to a consumer based industry
building cars and small appliances instead of guns).
Profits were spent on adding to factories or building new
ones during prosperity.
HOWEVER, this MASS PRODUCTION of consumer products
(like cars, consumer goods, etc) resulted in a huge stockpile
supply of goods that couldnt all be sold by the late 20s.

REASON 3. Canada was too dependent on exports of natural

resources (selling to other countries). Overproduction of raw
materials and the limited demand for products became a big
problem!
With the prosperous 1920s, Europe was starting to recover
after WWI and make their own consumer goods like Canada.
They no longer needed Canada to export products like
wheat, paper, fish, coal or consumer products (this added to
the oversupply build-up problem of consumer products in the
late 20s and little demand or need for all those products
that were manufactured in bulk) leading to the 1930
depression/debt/poverty.

REASON 4. Canadas economy was also too

dependent on the USA.
In the 1920s, almost 40% of Canadian exports were
sold to the States, along with investments.
When the US economy failed with the Stock Market
Crash of 1929, Canadas stock market followed
with devastating consequences, leading to mass
poverty and unemployment.
Protectionism tariffs made this problem worse
1920s tariffs (duties or taxes on imported goods
coming into a country) hurt Canadian profits when
exporting/selling to other countries.
US protectionist taxes really hurt Canadian
business profits when exporting/selling to the
States.

REASON 5. The Dust Bowl HIT HARD

Wheat prices hit rock bottom without
having anyone to export to. Farmers lost
their business in the prairies. Land was also
destroyed by over ploughing in the 20s
during prosperity.
To make matters worse, farmers took a
hard hit with the Dust Bowl (severe drought
hit farms).
Farmers abandoned their farms and
hopped on trains illegally to hitch a ride for
work elsewhere.

The effects of
the depression
were made
worse by the
Dust Bowl

Decades of over-farming and

droughts in the Plains led to
windstorms that swept away
soil and made farming
impossible

Major Consequences:
Consequence: Resulted in major debt
for the country, banks and businesses
closed, individuals and the economy
were in major economic
/emotional/social crisis.
Businesses shut down & people lost
savings & jobs!
Massive unemployment throughout
the 1930s (about 25% of the
population were unemployed)

How you viewed the Great Depression depended on your age and what
happened to you.
Children:
Never really saw this era as a miserable time
Families have a lot of time for each other
For entertainment, there were parlor games, the piano, church
community, radio
Food may have been poor, but there was plenty of appetite
Adults:

Many were unable to find a job or pay the rent

Once your savings were gone, there was nothing else

Fishermen couldn't sell their fish (nobody had money to purchase

it)

Farmers watched the soil blow away as dust

Young men were often the most disadvantaged

Farmers often faired better than the urban dwellers because they
could eat what they managed to grow (unless the dust bowl
directly affected their crops out west in Canada along the
prairies).
-For the farmers who managed, many were already poor, so they
could cope with more poverty.
Store owners sometimes extended credit knowing that they may
never be paid.
Teachers watched out for (and often fed) students who came to
school hungry.
Religious institutions played a major role by:
-Offering stability and comfort to families
-Providing counseling for those who were overwhelmed
-Shipping clothes and food to the prairies during the Dust
Bowl

This is a Bennett Buggy

a car with the engine and
windows removed and
pulled by a horse.
Nicknamed after 1930s
Prime Minister Richard
Bennett (blamed for not
fixing the Canadas poverty
state).

This is an image of men

riding the rods. Why would
men do something so
dangerous?

Soup Kitchens and Breadlines

Rudy Vallee
Brother Can You
Spare a Dime?
Song plays for next 4

e
h
t
e
defin

g
n
i
w
o
foll

s,
d
r
o
w
n
w
sh
o
a
r
r
u
C
o
et
k
In y
r
a
:
s
M
k
it
c
d
o
term
t
e
S
r
ion
t
C
a
l
y
s
u
g
e
Ea
R
l
ia
c
n
d
a
n
n
i
a
F
m
f
o
De
k
g
c
n
a
i
L
k
s
Shrin omic Tie s
Econ ve Tariff
i
)
t
k
c
o
e
o
t
b
xt
Pro
e
t
r
ou
y
n
i
83
2
8
s
e
g
a
ep
e
s
:
(hint

G
I
D
o
t
n
r
ur t u
o
y
s
i
t
i
fer,
Now
n
i
,
e
b
i
r
c
Des
.
r
e
p
e
f
e
o
d
h
t
o
b
e
aliz
r
e
n
e
g
d
do
an
t
a
h
W
.
ges
a
m
i
e
s
e
th
life
t
u
o
b
a
u
o
they tell y reat
eG
during th
on?
i
s
s
e
r
p
e
D

Homework Questions:
80-81, 86-89
1)How did Bennett respond to the Great
Depression?
2)Read pages 80-81 in your textbook. Do you think
it was fair to blame Bennett for the long-term effects
of the Great Depression?
3)How did the Great Depression affect the following
groups of people: Women, Aboriginal and First
Nations, Inuit Communities?
4)What was Bennetts New Deal? Why was it
significant?

What Were the Long-term Effects of

the Great Depression?
The Great Depression profoundly affected
the world economy, especially in Europe,
where many countries had not fully
recovered from the aftermath of World
War One; In Germany, the economic
disaster and resulting social dislocation
contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
-We will discus this further in the
following weeks

What Were the Long-term Effects of

the Great Depressioncontinued
Yet it is generally agreed that complete
business recovery was not achieved and
unemployment ended until the government
began to spend heavily for defense during
World War Two.

Canada and the Great Depression

Many Canadians in the Thirties felt that
the depression wasn't brought about by
the Wall Street Stock Market Crash, but
by the enormous 1928 wheat crop crash.
Due to this, many people were out of work
and money and food began to run low.

Canada and the Great Depression

continued
For all the unemployed there was a relief
program for families and all unemployed
single men were sent packing by relief
officers by boxcar to British Columbia.
There were also work camps established
for single men by Prime Minister Richard
Bedford Bennett's Government.
As the Depression carried on, 1 in 5
Canadians became dependent on
government relief. 30% of the labour
force was unemployed, where as the
unemployment rate had previously never
dropped below 12%.

Summary
The era of the Great Depression (192939), also known as the Dirty Thirties,
wasn't like an ordinary depression where
savings vanished and city families went to
the farm until it blew over.
The Great Depression affected everyone
in some way and there was basically no way
to escape it. The Socialist James S.
Woodsworth told the Federal Parliament in
Ottawa, "If they went out today, they
would meet another army of unemployed
coming back from the country to the city."

Summarycontinued
Many people turned to new political parties
to help solve the economic crisis, as
traditional political parties failed to offer
any real strategies to relieve the situation.
Nothing world governments did to alleviate
the economic crisis was completely
successful. The employment and
production demands of World War Two
ended the Great Depression.

HW:
From the Camps to the Rails pg. 92-93
1)Why are the relief camps created?
2)Briefly describe life in the camps
3)How do the men try to improve
conditions in the camps? What is the
result?
4)Why do Canadians no buy
Bennetts new deal?
5)What would end the Great
Depression?

HW:
The Emergence of Political Alternatives
pgs 94-96
1)Create a 3 circle venn diagram to compare
and contrast the CCF, Social Credit and
Union Nationale
2)Which of the three new parties provided
the most practical response to the
problems of the Great Depression? Provide
reasons for your answers
3)Explain how Duplessis and Padlock Law
helped develop Quebec Nationalism