The Dirty Thirties

Question 1

The Causes of the Great Depression

Answer 1

• Overproduction: A slowing of the economy led to overproduction, which led to the stockpiling of goods,

Deflation: of prices, which decreased the economic efficiency of these companies. This caused their stocks to lose value quickly and was a main contributor to the stock market crash of 1929.

• Debt: from World War I had put many nations in a precarious situation, and the moment the economy began to decline in the late 1920s, Canada did not have the national funding to immediately alleviate the issue.
• Unemployment: As industries overproduced and could not sell their stock, massive layoffs became a reality and unemployment reached a peak at the end of the decade.

Question 2

The Stock Market Crash

Answer 2

On Tuesday, October 29th, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. Everyone panicked and sold their stocks, and over 16 million shares were traded. This meant that the stocks of every company in the U.S. had now dropped significantly in value, and many companies began to fail immediately.

Question 3

The Conditions of the Dirty Thirties
Drought in the Prairies

Answer 3

• If that wasn’t bad enough, a massive drought hit the prairies in 1931, and farms were hit with constant dust storms and extremely dry weather, killing all their crops. Many farmers simply left their farms and looked to find another living, and the prairies were referred to as the Dust Bowl.

Question 4

Collecting Pogey

Answer 4

• The Canadian government tried to give aid through “pogey”: government payments designed to help the unemployed. This, however, ultimately failed.

Question 5

Being On the Dole

Answer 5

• means the government is distributing food to people as well as other basics to help them out.

Question 6

Terminology (Bennett Boroughs, Bennett Buggies, Jungles, etc.)

Answer 6

• Hoovervilles: Unemployed men would move to nearby cities and settle in “Hooverville” shanty towns by gathering what metal, wood, and cloth scraps they could find and making makeshift homes.

Hoover Cart: For transportation, cars were stripped down and turned into horse carriages as few could afford gasoline, giving rise to the “Hoover Cart”.

Question 7

Trekkers

Answer 7

• Some men moved from town to town looking for work and money to support their families. They were known as transients or “trekkers”

Question 8

Relief Camps and the Royal Twenty Centers

Answer 8

• the men were sent to rural relief camps where they could neither vote nor organize. The camps were voluntary, but those who resisted could be arrested for being homeless

Question 9

The On to Ottawa Trek

Answer 9

over a thousand angry unemployed men left federal relief camps in British Columbia and boarded boxcars to take their demand for work and wages directly to Ottawa.

Question 10

The On to Ottawa Trek

Answer 10

over a thousand angry unemployed men left federal relief camps in British Columbia and boarded boxcars to take their demand for work and wages directly to Ottawa.

Question 11

The Regina Riot

Answer 11

• Bennett was convinced he needed to stop the On-To-Ottawa Trek before it hit the union hotbed that was Winnipeg, Manitoba. In Regina, the Trekkers clashed with police and RCMP agents in what became known as the Regina Riot.

Question 12

The Arts
The Blues, Jazz Swing, Cinema, Period Pieces, etc.

Answer 12

• Art was a great way for some to help escape the reality of the great depression. Eleanor Roosevelt was very supportive of the arts and believed that it should be accessible by more than just the rich.
• Roosevelt’s support of the arts led to the cultural evolution of many communities. Writers produced thousands of historical and fictional novels. Former slaves produced memoirs sharing their experiences. artists were payed to create poster promoting musical and theatre performances. The 1930s also saw the evolution of Jazz music and the dawn the the Jazz Swing.

Question 13

William Lyon Mackenzie King (“5 Cent Piece”)

Answer 13

did not have a plan to stop the Great Depression, and he famously would not give money to provincial governments in order to help them during the recession.

Question 14

R B Bennett (Bennett’s New Deal)

Answer 14

• R. B. Bennett was a businessman and philanthropist with self-made wealth, and he campaigned on providing federal relief to Canadians in need.
• Guaranteed Wages
• Guaranteed Work Hours
• Farm credit
• Natural Resource Marketing
• Unemployment Insurance

Question 15

The CCF (JS Woodsworth)

Answer 15

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
- The CCF was formed by a union between workers and farm activists in Calgary in 1932. their plans to replace the existing political makeup of Canada with a democratic-socialist governmental system. However, the CCF wished to achieve this through reform, not revolution.

Question 16

The CPC (Tim Buck)

Answer 16

• (Communist party of Canada) However, unlike the CCF, the CPC and their policies were too heavily influenced by Stalin’s Comintern and did not fit well into a Canadian context. Canada was not ready for a communist revolution, and neither were the federal and provincial governments of Canada, In 1931, the CPC headquarters was raided and their leader Tim Buck was arrested and imprisoned. The Party was banned in 1941.

Question 17

Maple Leaf Gardens and the NHL

Answer 17

• The Great Depression slowed the growth of the NHL as all of its franchises felt the economic struggles of the time. in 1931 and soon, over a million Canadians were tuning in. During the crisis that was the Great Depression, Canadians turned to hockey for entertainment and escape from the harsh realities of the great depression

Question 18

CBC

Answer 18

• The CBC stands for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and was established in 1936. It was designed to bring Canadian radio content to Canadians across the country in order to combat growing American influence over Canadian popular culture.

Question 19

Hockey Night in Canada

Answer 19

• Every Saturday night, the Maple Leafs would play the Canadiens for Canadian supremacy and it would be broadcast on the radio as “Hockey Night in Canada” which continues on television to this day.

Question 20

Dionne Quintuplets

Answer 20

-before fertility drugs the odds of naturally having quintuplets surviving birth is estimated at one in 57 million.

• in the 1930s, however, it was the Ontario government that propelled the Dionne quintuplets into the spotlight after taking custody of the girls in the first few days of their lives on the grounds that the parents had neither the knowledge nor finances to keep the frail babies alive.