How bad was the Great Depression?
No Money, No Jobs Unemployment reached 27% at the height of the Depression in Corporate profits went from $396 million in 1929 to corporate losses of $98 million in For all major classes of labour jobs in Canada, every trade saw their rates of wages dropped between 1930 and 1936
No More Exporting Other countries put up huge tariffs. Canadian exports shrank by 50% from 1929 to Farmers biggest exporters, hit hardest
Not to mention the drought Creates Dust Bowl of the 1930s
Food Is Hard to Find and/or Buy
Extreme Political Groups Gain Power Remember worldwide depression and its results? Happens in Canada to some degree. Social Credit Party, Communist Party, etc all gain popularity.
Work Camps For the Unemployed Bunkhouse residence, 3 meals a day, work clothes, medical care and 20 cents a day. the "Royal Twenty Centers" Worked 44-hr weeks clearing bush, building roads, planting trees and constructing public buildings. Many upset at tough conditions, temporary fix
On To Ottawa Trek
Families Fall Apart Canada's birthrate dropped from 13.1 live births per 1000 in 1930 to only 9.7 by 1937, the lowest ratio until the 1960s. Divorce rates went up.
Homelessness
PM RB Bennett Takes a lot of the blame. Bennett blankets=newspapers Bennet buggies=abandoned cars
Desperation and Hopelessness