1. The Roaring Life in Canada
Or, How we became more American

2. Winnipeg General Strike - 1919
Relationship between Canadian workers and employers becoming explosive
Unions had become stronger during the war
Winnipeg Trades and Labour Union wanted:
Better wages
Working conditions
Recognition of their collective bargaining rights

3. Winnipeg General Strike - 1919
Bloody Saturday – June 21, 1919

5. Think, Pair, Share
Predict: How might these images relate? How might they differ? What is going on in each?

6. Winnipeg General Strike
                                                                                                                                                                         
North Main Street, 21 June 1919, resulting in 30 casualties and one death

7. The Lead Up
Winnipeg
-Largest Western City

8. The Lead Up -Lack of gov’t aid (pension, medical) -Few jobs
1. Soldiers
-Lack of gov’t aid (pension, medical)
-Few jobs
-Resented rich employers (factory owners)

9. Returning WWI soldiers at Union Station, Winnipeg, 1919
Returning home, 1919
Canadian Soldiers, WW1

10. The Lead Up
2. Workers
-Poor pay
-Poor conditions

11. No one is allowed to stop work during working hours
Rules of the Workplace
(Cigar Factory)
10 hrs make up a day's work
No one is allowed to stop work during working hours
All employees to be search before leaving the factory
Loud or profane talking strictly prohibited.
All employees wasting or dropping tobacco on the floor will be fined for each offence.
Hair combing not allowed in the factory

12. The Lead Up 3. Influenza (Flu) Epidemic -Passed along CPR lines
-Hit Winnipeg hard (1918/19)

13. The Lead Up 4. Communist Influences -Russian Revolution (1919)
-”Worker’s Unite!”
-No private ownership
-High Russian Population

14. Power In Numbers Unions
-organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals

15. Power In Numbers O.B.U. “One Big Union” (1919)
-Represents all Canadian workers
-Main Weapon: GENERAL STRIKE!!
Strike Committee 1919

16. Power In Numbers Collective Bargaining
-1 bargains on behalf of the whole
e.g. Union leaders negotiate with a company for better wages/ conditions for workers(union members.

17. How It All Went Down Metal Workers Walk Out (May 1919) Demands:
-higher wages (85 cents/hour)
-shorter work week (60 hrs/wk -> 44)
-Right to collective bargaining

18. How It All Went Down 2. GENERAL STRIKE! -30,000 Support Strike
-Strike Committee
-Winnipeg ground to a halt!

19. How It All Went Down 3. Citizen’s Committee of 1,000
-Business leaders, politicians,factory owners
-Create Special Police Force
-Arrest strike leaders
-Fire civic workers
-“Sedition”
-threatening the state

20. Citizen’s Committee of 1000

21. How It All Went Down Bloody Saturday (June 21, 1919)
-Parade: workers protest
-N.W.M.P. charge the crowd
-1 dead, 30 injured
-Many arrested

23. How It All Went Down 5. Workers Defeated
-Back to Work (Monday June 22, 1919)
-43 day protest ends

24. Results
1. Many strikers were not rehired

25. Results
2. Some strikers were rehired, but forced to sign a contract: Forbidding union involvement

26. Results 3. 7 arrested leaders served prison time J.S. Woodsworth:
-formed the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)  NDP

27. Summary Winnipeg in a fragile state, unhappy masses
Workers STRIKE to protest unrest
City grinds to a halt
Citizen’s Committee of 1000 opposes
Bloody Saturday – violence erupts
Workers return back to work

28. Political Change after WWI
Robert Borden resigned shortly after WWI, due to his bad health
Arthur Meighen became the leader of the Conservatives and Canada’s 9th Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King (Liberal) and Meighen dominated politics throughout the 1920s
They hated each other.

29. A New Look at Government
LIBERAL
Reformer, conciliatory, always looking for the middle path that wouldn’t offend anyone.
CONSERVATIVE
Believed in principals over compromise, didn’t care who might be offended by his stand on issues

31. Arthur Meighen - Conservative
Helped draft Military Service Act (conscription) Authored War Measures Act Crushed Winnipeg General Strike 1920 – Recession caused Meighen to become widely disliked by workers, farmers, immigrants and Quebecers Lost election of 1921 to King

32. William Lyon Mackenzie King
Elected in 1921 Liberals (118 seats); Conservatives (48); Progressives (59) Elected 1925 Formed a majority with help from Progressives
King would be prime minister for 22 of the next 27 years.

33. Rum Runners