Moving Day - evicted

Wish us Luck!

It’s not like anyone starved to death Bennett was proud of that statistic – but no numbers were kept of the babies and young children who grew up malnourished and the mothers who stopped eating so their children could

Remember the man in the relief office in Cinderella Man? His wife still nursed the children because they had no food but her teeth were falling out and she was sick all the time

Free Haircuts to keep up morale

Soup kitchen in a church basement

Everywhere they went - So they took to the railways to see what the rest of the country could offer Unfortunately, more of the same

And slept on park benches

No where to go Can be seen any day in downtown Toronto, 2009

Or got together and created their own little shantytown – remember Hooverville? Vancouver, 1930, “Bennettburgh"

Cinderella Man Hooverville – Central Park - NYC

Relief Camps The people who still had a life – a home, a job, family, friends – were suspicious of these drifters – especially the immigrants - who wandered around the country looking for work Some had no sense of “There but for the Grace of God go I”

So, in 1932 the government, with the army, built Relief Camps up north – out of the way – and paid the unemployed 20 cents a day to do hard menial labour – sometimes just meaningless work to keep them busy

Relief Camp Workers – building a road to nowhere

Life Inside These are adults – how demoralizing

Unemployment relief camps were located in remote areas such as northern Ontario and interior B.C. Pictured here, camp huts in Barriefield, Ontario, (National Archives of Canada, PA ) “more men reading Karl Marx than girlie magazines”

On-to-Ottawa Trek By 1935, the relief camp workers had had enough – they went on strike, demanding 50 cents an hour 1000 from Vancouver took over freight trains and headed to Ottawa They were going to see Prime Minister Bennett

Hitchhikers The train stopped in cities along the way and another 1000 joined Now there were 2000 Trekkers

This guy really wanted to go!

Canadians Afraid Some thought this was the beginning of a Communist Revolution Bennett ordered the RCMP to stop the trains in Regina – remove all but 8 leaders who could continue on to meet the Prime Minister He refused their demands and accused them of being Communists

Trekkers gathered at exhibition grounds They look happy They’re leaders haven’t returned yet

Demonstration The leaders returned and attempted to organize a peaceful demonstration The cops didn’t like that and arrested their leaders – John Cosgrove and Stewart O’Neill

Riot Ensues

Failure Saskatchewan government offers them free passage home to British Columbia Nothing changes

Bennett’s New Deal Prime Minister Bennett’s days seemed numbered Seeking to maintain power, in January 1935 he began a series of live radio speeches outlining a "New Deal" for Canada – borrowing heavily from President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” for America

The “New Deal” Fairer taxes A maximum work week A minimum wage Unemployment, health and accident insurance Old-age pension and agricultural support programs

Too Little – Too Late He moved to Britain and served in the House of Lords until his death in 1947 King became Prime Minister, again