Chapter 3 Canada & the Twenties Flashcards
Soldiers retourned to Canada after the war (1918) to find what?
- no steady pensions for vetrerans
- no medical service for the wounded
- few jobs
what happened after the war? (genera;)
cost of goods soared,
workers suffered, could barely make ends meet
what did workers demand for?
and what did it result in?
demand: higher wages, better conditions, the right to join unions
resulted in strikes
labour wars
- over 4 yrs
- union and steel corporation confronted each other
- strikes turned violent, police (federal) were called in
- mainly in the maritimes
What happened at the Western Labour Conference in 1919
union leaders formed One Big Union (OUB) to try and help workers establish more control of industry and gov through peacful means
- organized a general strike
general strike
a walkout by all employed workers
Citizen’s comittee of one thousand
a group that saw union leaders as a communist conspiracy to overthow the gov
What came out of the strike? Reprocutions
Immigration act amended to deport foreign union leaders
-strike leaders arrested
what came out of the strike? and how long did it last?
lasted 43 days
distrust and devisions between working class and businiesses grew deeper
- many workers fired, others hired on the conditon they coudn’t join a union
- gradually what they fought for was achieved
regionalism
the concern of the various regions of the country with their own local problems
Name 2 regional challenges
- maritimes,people switched to oil (from coal), didnt have oil in their area (lots of coal), didnt have many in parliment to promote policies to benifit them
- farmers on the praries and ontario, frustrated with National Policy - tariffs placed on goods imported to canada, not such tariffs for agriculture products
What was created/happened because of the farmers regional challenge?
they came together to from the United Farmers’ Party and they formed gov in some parts of the country
1921 federal election new people and parties and results
- United Farmers’ Party
- King (chosen to lead the Liberals)
- Meighen (chosen to replace Borden as leader of the conservatives)
Liberals won a minority gov
minority gov
the governing party needs some of the opposition members to pass legislation
about King
about Meighen
KING: reformer, authority on social and economic issues, continued to push for Canada’s independance
MEIGHEN: debater, long-standing member of parliment
KING VS MEIGHEN - relationship and differences
relationship: despised each other personnally
differences: king was conciliatory, seeking middle path to offend least amount of people
meighen believed in principles over compromise, didnt care if people were offended by his stand on issues
King - Byng Crisis
- liberals held a minority gov
- liberals lost the support of the Progressive party
- King asked Byng (GG) to call election
- Byng refused but eventually did call and election
- King won again
Balfour Report
- Imperial Conference of 1926
- Canada made a lot of progress towards changing out legal dependence on Britain
- requested formal recognition of their autonomy
- a respected british politician examined this request; findings published in balfour report
- he supported our position
autonomy
freedom go govern themeselves
How did Canada become a British Commonwealth
- the recommandations of the Balfour report became law in 1931 when statue of westminster was by british empire
- statue official turned british empire into british commonwealth
Benifits and restrictions of being part of the british commonwealth
- Canada (a country) had equal status to others ex. Britain
- entitled to make their own laws
2 restrictions: - Canada’s constitution (the BNA) had to remain in Britain (the Can. Fed Gov. and provincial Gov. coundn’t agree on a amending formula
- judicial court of appeal for Canada resided in Britain until 1949
amending formula
the procedure for changing the act
By the middle of the 20’s what were some of Canada’s major imports?
wheat, pulp and paper (trees), lead, zinc, copper, silver,
The USA invests in Canada’s economy
- US companies invested in pulp and paper mills and mines across Canada which were then exported to the US
- Rather than lend $ to Canada they set up branch plants
- by the end of the 20’s canadian auto industry hd been taken over by by 3 US companies (Ford, Chrysler, General Motors)