The Great Depression No job, no hope . . .

Causes There were a few reasons as to how the Great Depression started but the most common were the job and money losses. Stock went to outrageous prices in order to improve business but only ended up preventing anyone from buying anything due to lack of money. Businesses, families, banks, countries and a lot of other sources that depended on money went bankrupt because money was becoming scarce. Canada took a major blow when international trade stopped because Canada had depended on other countries to buy their natural resources in order to make money. Saskatchewan was one of the worst because they were going through a massive drought that made farming impossible at the time of the Depression, wheat went to waste, and factories were forced to close and again many people lost their jobs. Those few that managed to keep their jobs had such a low income that they had a hard time supporting their families. Those that had lost their jobs traveled the country as hobos looking for work and some even traveled to California the land of “milk and honey” to find work. The people looked forward to buying presents or even food for their children and families.

Charts The unemployment rates in the U.S. (the years of the Great Depression are highlighted) The U.S. GDP rates (highlighted) The U.S. Farm rates

Government Involvement To help with the depression the government set up relief camps for unemployed, single young men who received an income of 20 cents per day. The government hired unemployed men to work public jobs for the people, with minimum wages but still it was a relief knowing you had a job too go to. Quebec governments gave coupons to the unemployed to bargain or trade for food, clothing, or any other necessities they might need. Church’s set up free food “booths” for anyone who needed it which was basically everyone. The Canadian “New Deal” built the Bank of Canada to organize the flow of money, railways , introduced the people to insurance and re-introduced the building of tariffs for the shoe and textile industries. All in all the government tried as hard as they could to fix the giant mess the country was in and Canada recovered as one of the fastest.

The Effect on the Families Families split up or migrated from their homes in search of jobs due to the loss of job and extremely low income. Groups of youths or gangs lived in Hooverille where the buildings were made out of scrap metal. They traveled on top of trains as hoboes and the “Okies” left their home to find a new life in California, the land of milk and honey. Factories, mines, both family and government business, stores, factories, and any other form of work were closed down except for a few lucky people who managed to keep their jobs although pay was greatly reduced.

Sources http://www.todaysteacher.com/TheGreatDepressionWebQuest/BriefOverview.htm http://www.google.ca/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression#Causes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression http://edss.wrdsb.on.ca/courses/chc2di/THE%20GREAT%20DEPRESSION.htm Canada’s Story: for young Canadians Book Two by Murray Ballantyne and Paul Gallagher Canadian History for young Catholic Students by Mary Ann Procca

How Economic Trouble Effected My Family Economic trouble effected my family when my dad was laid off form his job at the mill. My dad had tried, and still is, to find a job closer to home but the closest he got was in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories where he’s home for one week and away for three weeks but it’s a job so it’s better than nothing. If my family ever had to go through a time like the depression we would give up buying anything extra, if any job was unnecessary we wouldn’t run up town for it, and we would stop the car insurance on one of our vehicles. My mom also said that we have a separate account in the bank in case anything like that ever happened or if dad lost his job again, which would be highly unlikely because they value him up there. But in any case me and my family would be willing to make the necessary sacrifices if a time like that ever did rise again.