1. The Great Depression
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange: Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children, gazes off into the distance. This photograph, commissioned by the FSA, came to symbolize the Great Depression for many Americans. (Photo Credit: CORBIS)

3. Immediate Cause:
Stock Market Crash: > "Black Tuesday" – Oct mil shares sold on NY Stock Ex

4. People buy into stock market, prices inflated, prices of stocks fall quickly,
Investors who had borrowed $ to buy share, went bankrupt in single day
Losses due to over-speculation & “Buying on Margin” = Bad
many people lost entire life savings

5. Background Causes: 1.Overproduction:
Eg. overproduction of wheat = fewer sales to foreign markets
decreased sales farmers not make $  higher unemployment

6. Background Causes cont.
2). High Tariffs - protectionism:
U.S. raises tariffs, other countries respond by doing the same
Slow down in world trade b/c fewer export opportunities

7. Background Causes cont.
3). Germany can’t pay reparations:
German economy ruined, can’t pay
Britain & France depended on these payments in order to repay their debts to the US

8. Background Causes: International Debt cont.
Consequences:
> countries lost ability to re-pay war loans
> US loans to Germany; G repays Br/Fr /Belg as
reparations
> When US stops loans, Germany can't pay
> Br/Fr can't pay war loans
> economies collapse

9. Sustaining Causes: 1. Dust Bowl / Droughts/ wind storms
> over farming wheat - no crop rotation

12. Damage from Dust Storm in Oklahoma, 1936: In the 1930s, agricultural damage, coupled with drought and windstorms, resulted in the severe damage and destruction across the Plains states that became known as the Dust Bowl. (Photo Credit: CORBIS)

16. Sustaining Causes cont.
2. Locust Plagues
> grasshoppers like hot, dry conditions. Millions descended on farms, eating entire crops, and even farm tools in hours.

17. Effects on Canada:
Canada depended on export of primary resources esp. wheat & newsprint
Canadians lose jobs when demand decreases
When US economy crashed, Canada’s crashed too b/c of major trade ties
working class people most affected

20. Effects on Canada – cont.
had to collect “pogey”  government relief payments
applied for assistance, get food vouchers  humiliating
soup kitchens

21. "Big Al's Kitchen for the Needy": In an attempt to clean up his public image, gangster Al Capone opened a soup kitchen to feed Chicago's needy. (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

22. Lineup for soup kitchen

24. Church soup kitchen Montreal 1930

26. Effects on Canada – cont.
by 1933 more than ¼ of Canadian workforce unemployed
many young, unemployed men looking for work, travel by trains: - roof, “riding the rods” underneath

27. Dust Bowl Refugees: Many, but not all, of the Dust Bowl refugees hailed from Oklahoma. As they flooded the West Coast in large numbers in search of jobs, they were given the disparaging nickname "Okies." (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

29. Effects on Canada – cont.
shanty towns spring up
 “jungles”

31. Effect on Prairies: - Prairies hit the hardest: droughts locusts
falling wheat prices = farm bankruptcies

33. Disadvantaged: difficult for women to find work – paid very poorly
Aboriginal families  $5 a month; expected to “live off the land”
Chinese discriminated against; many starved.
Jewish immigrants targeted
Almost 10,000 immigrants deported from Canada in 1st half of Depression
1931, gov’t stop all immigration

34. Mackenzie King’s response to Depression:
King unprepared, thought depr. temporary
King said provincial & municipal gov’t responsible for people
he would not give a
“five cent piece” to
Tory Provincial gov’t
“LAISSEZ- FAIRE”

35. election in 1930- King loses, Conservative RB Bennet wins

36. RB Bennett’s response to the Depression: (Conservative Party)
1). raise tariffs  protect
Canadian business from
foreign competition
2).Gov’t feared men join
Communist party > Gov’t ban party
- mid-class Canadians scared of jobless drifting men.

37. RB Bennett’s response – cont.
3). Create work camps
 unemployed, single men
 isolated camps
 work projects; roads, clearing land, ditch digging
 paid 20 cents / day + room & board
 bad food, bugs, nothing to do

38. Temporary housing conditions at Ontario relief camp

39. Relief camp outside Kananaskis

41. RB Bennett’s response – cont.
4). Bennett's (Little) New Deal based on FDR's New Deal
Called for:
Taxes based on income
Max # hours in work week
Minimum wage
Regulation of working conditions
Unemployment insurance
Health and accident insurance
Support for farmers and seniors
> revised Old Age Pension to help seniors 65+
>1935 Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act
> created Canadian Wheat Board to regulate prices
- Unemployment Relief Act – gave provinces money for work-creation programs

42. * things get worse
 * Bennett targeted, blamed
“Bennett barnyard” “Bennet blanket”
“Bennett Buggy”

45. On-to-Ottawa Trek:
1935, over thousand men meet with Relief Camp Workers Union
decide to take complaints to Ottawa
Start in Vancouver
ride trains across Prairies, more people join

49. On-to-Ottawa Trek – cont.
By Regina, 2000 men part of the trek
in Regina, RCMP keep them there, only leaders go to Ottawa
Bennett not trust leaders, call them “criminal”, “thief”
RCMP clear protesters out of Regina stadium
protesters resist > REGINA RIOT
1 man killed, many injured, 130 arrested

51. Vancouver Protest:
gov’t close relief camps 1937
gov’t reduce relief payments
men hold “sit-ins”  occupy Vancouver Art Gallery & post office
police use tear gas, much damage

56. 1930 Election
King’s attitude towards the Depression cost him the 1930 election
R.B. Bennett, leader of Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister

57. Bennett’s Response to the Great Depression 1930-1935
Gave provinces $20 million for work-creation programs/relief such as relief camps and pogey
Increased tariffs by 50%
Prairie Rehabilitation Act
Economy does not improve

58. Bennett’s (Little) New Deal 1935
Based on FDR’s New Deal
Called for:
Taxes based on income
Max. # of hours in work week
Min. wage
Regulation of working conditions
Unemployment insurance
Health and accident insurance
Support for farmers and seniors
Too little, too late
King referred Bennett's New Deal legislation to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (at that time Canada's court of final appeal), which in 1937 declared many of the reforms unconstitutional and outside of federal jurisdiction.