1. The Government Responds to the Depression
Lesson 8

2. Changes in Government during the Depression
– Liberals under William Lyon Mackenzie King
– Conservatives under R.B. Benett
Liberals under William Lyon Mackenzie King

3. The Bennett Buggy Describe what is happening in this picture
Why might this be an appropriate symbol of the 1930’s?
What does the name given this vehicle tell you about how Canadian’s felt about the government?

4. Halifax Chronicle in 1932 Describe what is happening in this cartoon
How is Prime Minister Bennett portrayed?
What message is the cartoonist trying to deliver?
Would Bennett’s wealth affect his decisions as Prime Minister?
Was the criticism fair?

5. TLS Worksheet 2.2.5 – King/Bennett Comparison
Using p of the textbook, complete the Venn diagram on the worksheet
Do you feel the government should take an active role in helping people, or should people be left to figure it out for themselves? Explain why.

6. Did the government do enough to help?
Prime Minister R.B. Bennett’s government introduced monthly relief payments for people in need.
But these payments were very low.
Bennett believed that they should be lower than the money people could earn at the lowest-paying job.
He said that higher payment would discourage people from looking for work.

7. What attitude is the speaker reacting to?
Was the system of doling out relief payments to various groups was fair?

8. Why would some workers and unemployed people believe that communism would solve their problems?

9. Unemployed Workers Seek Other Solutions
Unemployed workers believed that the government was not doing enough, and many turned to new political parties. Some supported communism as a way of solving their problems.
In 1917, communists had taken over Russia through a violent revolution. This frightened many governments around the world. Many people feared that their government, too, would be overthrown by communists.
In Canada, people suspected of being communists were treated harshly. Many were beaten up by police and arrested. Some were even deported.

10. Relief Camps
To deal with unemployment, Bennett’s government created relief camps. The purpose of the camps, which were in remote areas, was to move homeless, unemployed men away from cities and towns, where people feared that they would cause trouble.
Signing up for the camps was voluntary - but an unmarried homeless man who chose not to go could be arrested. In return for doing jobs like building roads and planting trees, camp workers were given food, shelter, and work clothes. They also received 20 cents a day.
Bennett believed that camp workers should be grateful for the opportunity to work. But many workers resented the low pay and the poor living conditions in the camps.

12. Workers Take Action: The On-to-Ottawa Trek
In 1935, camp workers organized to demand higher wages. The protest was called the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
The trek - or journey - started in Vancouver, where more than 1000 men hitched a ride in freight cars bound for Ottawa. They planned to talk directly to Bennett. In towns along the way, people welcomed the protesters and gave them food. More men joined the trek.
But Bennett had no sympathy for the trekkers. He ordered the RCMP to end the protest in Regina, Saskatchewan. There, the police would not let trekkers back onto trains.

14. Workers Take Action: The On-to-Ottawa Trek
Meanwhile, Bennett had agreed to meet trek leaders in Ottawa. But their talks broke down, and the leaders returned to Regina. Bennett then ordered their arrest.
At a protest rally in Regina on July 1, police waded into the crowd to make the arrests. Trekkers fought back and a vicious riot erupted. One police officer was killed, dozens of people were injured, and 130 protesters were arrested. The Regina Riot ended the trek and nothing changed for camp workers.

15. Show You Know
Complete TLS Worksheet – Examining Relief from Both Sides
To some, the On-To-Ottawa trekkers were innocent victims of the Depression. To others, they were a dangerous threat to society. Which perspective would you have taken if you were an unemployed worker? A business owner? Explain your reasons.

16. Farmer wait for train
What were some problems faced by Prairie Farmers during the Depression?

17. Prairie Farmers
Prairie farmers were among those hit hardest by the Depression. Their chief crops were grains, especially wheat, and they relied on selling these crops to other countries. When other countries stopped buying, the price of grain fell and farmers’ incomes dropped. In addition, crops in many parts of the Prairies were destroyed by drought, grasshoppers, and diseases.

18. Farmers Take Action
In the 1920s, farmers in all three Prairie Provinces created co- operative wheat pools to bring their crops together. The wheat pools were able to borrow money from banks when individual farmers could not. Bankers thought that making loans to individual farmers was risky, but they were willing to lend to the pools.
The pools built grain elevators to store the wheat. When a farmer delivered wheat to a local elevator, an official graded the crop and the farmer received a partial payment from the money lent to the pool. At the end of the season, when all the wheat had been sold, the bank loan was repaid. The money that was left over was shared among pool members.
This meant that individual farmers no longer needed to worry so much about the ups and downs of wheat prices. The pools sold all the wheat, and everyone shared in the profits.

20. Wheat Pools and the Depression
Even the wheat pools suffered during the Depression. The price of wheat was so low that the pools often could not even recover the first payments made to farmers when they delivered their crops. This meant that the pools could not repay their bank loans. To prevent the pools from going bankrupt, the federal government agreed to make up the shortfall.

21. The Beginning of Marketing Boards
After making up the shortfall on an emergency basis for several years, the federal government decided in to take a more organized approach. It created the Canadian Wheat Board to market Canadian wheat. The government agreed to pay for any losses the board suffered. Profits were shared among farmers.
The Canadian Wheat Board was not the first marketing board for agricultural products - but it was the most ambitious so far. It became a model for the later creation of other marketing boards for Canadian farm products such as milk, eggs, and turkeys:

22. The Beginning of Marketing Boards
Despite the government’s action, many farmers especially those whose crops had been wiped out by drought and grasshoppers found it hard to get by during the Depression. The situation was especially bleak in Saskatchewan, where about 66 per cent of farmers depended on relief handouts and many walked away from their farms.
The farmers’ frustration was the reason many of the new political parties, such as Social Credit and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, were created in the Prairie Provinces.

23. Show You Know
Create a diagram to show how wheat pools worked. Show who was involved and how the money flowed.

24. Banks lent money to wheat pool
Pools built grain elevators to store wheat
Farmers delivered wheat to local elevator
Wheat was graded and farmer received partial payment from money lent to pool
At end of season, the pool repaid the bank loan when all the wheat was sold
Profit was shared among pool members