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The Great Depression, govt won't stimulate economy to get out of the…
The Great Depression
causes
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European economies are still recovering after WWI - damages need to be rebuilt, population loss, loans from war are coming due.
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1920s saw wild speculation of the US Stock market - high risk investments that sold quickly for high profit. value of assets was tied to the ideas of things not the physical aspect. too much oversupply of several commodites
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stock market begins to fall - panics investors, they pull out their investments. panic grows and many follow suit until finally this culminates on Black Tuesday - October 29, 1929. billions of dollars are lost and banks lose everyone money - savings are gone
relief
relief is seen as charity and charity is shameful at this time especially for able bodied men. masculinity is tied to being the breadwinner atm.
people chose any other option than going on relief - this included draining their savings, borrowing on credit, borrowing from friends and family, and taking any job available. people wanted to hide their poverty
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people would gossip and it brought you to the attention of the local authorities and middle class reformers. many of these worked for the protestant church and didn't understand the circumstances of the working class. the middle class focused on individualism whereas the working class would likely ask for help from their community and family. you had to be properly grateful on relief and you couldn't drink.
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background
after the US, Canada was the hardest hit country by the G.D, both are rescued only by WWII
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what makes it worse
the weather contributes HUGELY - 1931 prairie regions of canada see the worst drought in 100 years. bad farming practices due to the settlement era. DUST BOWL: the wind sweeps across the prairies and takes the top soil with it - no natural wind breaks left
plague of grasshoppers after the dust bowl, eating up the remaining crops that were able to grow. following this are 3 more years of drought
survival in the G.D
some abandon their farms, others leave the women and children in charge of the farm while the husband goes to find work on the road
Atlantic Canada is hit hard due to lack of diversified economy. miners were out of work in BC, AB and cape Breton, construction was hard hit, constant fear of unemployment was just around the corner, people delayed marriages and stayed in school for as long as possible
how the govt responds
conservatives and liberals have much of the same policies and that is to not intervene but keep things from totally falling apart. Lyon Mackenzie is in power from sept 1926-1930 then Bennett is in from 1930 to October 1935 and then Lyon Mackenzie again from 1935-48. both did very little. focused on emergency relief rather than sustained programs.
why did they respond poorly: for their self interest - both wanted to be reelcted and thought that running a deficit and having relief wouldn't male this happen. assumed people wouldn't work if people were able to have relief. not all people have equal access to relief
How US repsonds
in a nationalistic way - tariffs on imports and refuses to buy non-americas products. BUT not enough Americans consume their products. money stops moving. more people out of work means not paying taxes - govt running out of money. also the prevailing thought that running a state into a deficit was a HUGE mistake
the BENNETT BUGGY
symbol of the boom bust of farming - hitching a pair of horses to the vehicle. when times were good you are able to buy and afford a vehicle, but during the depression this wasn't the case and nobody could sell the vehicles because everyone was in the same situation so they ended up using the horses instead of fuel for work and travel
work camps
govt concerned with the men riding the rails and in BC and ONT they build work camps that are strictly for control and surveillance and to get them out of urban areas. the work they did was meaningless and just to keep them tired. they were paid room and board as well as 20 cents per day
onto Ottawa trek
protest of over 1000 men demanding real work and money, board box cars to take they issues right to Ottawa and the politicians in the spring of 1935, but were stopped in regina by the RCMP by orders of the Bennett govt. causes a riot. in 1936 Mackenzie kings liberals close the camps but don't provide another alternative
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