Boom, Bust & Dust
Post War Canada: 1919-1929
from A Short History of Canada (Desmond Morton)
Influenza Virus
Troops returning from war brought home a deadly flu virus, killing thousands (50,000) in the first year.
In fact, the virus killed MORE people than the Great War:
- 20 to 40 million worldwide.
- 20 million military/civilian deaths
Unions and Labor Problems
There weren’t as many jobs to go around with all the factories closing. Returning soldiers wanted their jobs back. Increased competition meant employers could keep wages low. Workers felt they had to unionize in order to protect themselves from corrupt bosses. This, in turn, led to the Red Scare and the rise of ONE BIG UNION. Why did workers feel they needed unions?
- Low Wages
- Unfit Working Conditions
- No labor regulations
- Remember that unions began during WWI?
One Big Union
Working class people all over the world wanted all workers to organize. A large union might be able to earn back some rights by organizing strikes. The typical response to unions was to see them as Communist. People feared that Communism was spreading throughout North America, since the Bolshevik Revolution had occurred in Russia. Workers saw this as an example of successful ‘socialist’ reform.
Why Fear the Bolshevik Revolution?
It overthrew Russia’s leaders and led to the Russian Civil War (1917-20) and the creation of the Soviet Union (1922). To many people, Socialism = Communism and the government of Canada feared something similar might happen here.
May 1919: Winnipeg General Strike
- Metal workers wanted 85¢ an hour.
- 35,000 workers joined.
- Spurred waves of ‘sympathetic’ strikes across Canada.
- Lasted six weeks.
- Borden and middle-class Canadians feared the strikes were the work of ‘foreign Bolsheviks’.
- Borden tried to suppress strikes and demands of workers.
- ‘Sympathetic’ federal employees (including police officers) who walked out were fired.
- The Immigration Act was amended, and permitted the deportation of ‘radical aliens’.
Bloody Saturday – June 21, 1919
Police attacked a strikers’ parade in downtown Winnipeg, killing 2, injuring 30. This effectively ended the strike. Investigations proved that the strike wasn’t a ‘criminal conspiracy’ by foreigners. The workers were defeated (they needed pay so they went back to work). The strikes did improve working conditions for millions of Canadians, however.
Unrest in Canada: No One is Happy
Quebec
- Isolationism
- Conscription Aftertaste
- Ontario’s opposition to bilingual education
The West and the Prairies
- Mistrust of traditional political parties
- Isolationism
- Elected people to serve farmers’ interests.
Maritimes
- Felt isolated/neglected by Central (Ontario & Quebec) and Western Canada (Manitoba to BC).
- 1920: Maritimes were in a depression
- Factories shut down after war (42% between 1920-26).
- Thousands went West looking for work.
Isolationism Was Alive and Well in the USA Again Too!
- Isolationism is characterized by non-Intervention in 'other people's problems'. Isolationists avoid wars that don’t deal directly with the self-defence of their own territory. It is also characterized by protectionism: countries create legal barriers to prevent trade/cultural exchange with people in other countries/states.
Prime Ministers in the 1920s
After nearly a decade as Prime Minister, Robert Borden retired in 1920 after:
- Commonwealth of Nations
- Leadership in War
- League of Nations
- Imperial War Cabinet
- The War Measures Act
- Income Tax
- Treaty of Versailles
- The man on the $100 Bill
Arthur Meighen
- Borden’s second-in-command, he created the original Conscription Act.
- Sworn in after Borden retired, he only lasted until the end of the year.
- Elected again for a short stint in 1926.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Fought on Laurier’s side against Conscription (1917).
- Served (on and off) 21 years.
- Widely regarded as Canada’s best Prime Minister.
- Kept diaries.
- Lifelong bachelor.
Richard Bedford Bennett
- Made promises he couldn’t keep to get elected.
- Bad timing: Depression
- Millionaire from New Brunswick
- Part of Meighen’s cabinet.
Canada and the United States: Sound Familiar?
Business between Canada and the USA was booming. US investment in Canada was higher than British. We lost many skilled/educated workers to the USA. American culture influenced us. To top it all off, booze smuggling was becoming a problem.
The Roaring Twenties: Prosperity
People wanted to enjoy themselves again: Glamour; Jazz; Dance halls; Boozing; Crime; Corruption
Prohibition
Began in 1916 as a means to save money for the war effort. Women’s groups (mostly the Women’s Christian Temperance Union) were at the front in persuading governments to adopt it. While the idea looked good on paper, it was rife with problems:
Prohibition Problems: Illegal Activities
Bootleggers made and sold illegal liquor. Speakeasies (private clubs with peepholes at the entrance) ran, often with the knowledge (and attendance) of local government officials. Rumrunners from Canada smuggled illegal liquor into the USA, which was ‘dry’ from 1919-33. Canadians made a fortune smuggling liquor. Al Capone (USA) and Rocco Perri (Canada) thrived by selling illegal liquor and by ‘taking care’ of their competition. They were the original gangsters and actually did business in Moose Jaw. Finally, prohibition was abolished in most provinces by 1924 (PEI in 1948). It wasn't abolished in the USA in 1933. Why was it abolished at all? Impossible to enforce; gave gangsters too much power; provinces losing valuable tax revenue; unpopular with many citizens; government agreed to start liquor control policies.
Effects of Prohibition
Lower crime rate; less arrests for drunkenness; more cheques came home and not to the tavern; fewer work days missed made industry more efficient.
Factory Boom
Post-war, factories changed (retrofitted) to make home products and appliances. People could now buy electric ovens, toasters, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, etc.
Inventions
The major invention of this era was Insulin in 1922. Dr Frederick Banting discovered this treatment for diabetes. Other Inventions: Hair-driers, Band-Aids, Traffic Lights, Q-Tips, Kool-Aid. Automobiles and airplanes were used in the war, but were now outfitted for civilian uses like mail delivery. Also, thousands now could purchase their own affordable automobile…at least until 1929 or so.
Radio
The TV of the 1920s. First broadcast in Canada occurred in 1920 by XWA radio in Montreal. It was owned by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.
Sports
- The first Grey Cup in was held in 1921.
- Hockey Night in Canada on radio in 1923 (on TV in 1952).
- In the Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928, Canada won 15 medals. Bobbie Rosenfeld and Percy Williams were our most decorated athletes.
In Hollywood(land)
Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp was a box-office boom. Mary Pickford (America’s Sweetheart) was a Canadian. There were rumors that the two were romantically connected—a scandal since both were married.
Flappers
Smoked, drank, danced, voted!
Short skirts, wore make-up, partied – ‘unacceptable behavior’.
Offensive to older generations.
