J. Xia

Canada is hit hard by the Great Depression. Suffering from the economic depression, Canadian people face the problem like lacking food, unemployment and increasing rate in suicide. The government had changed and made lots of different policies during 1930s, but the economy condition is still not positive from the Canadian perspective- So, what is the next step the government is going to take?

When the depression began, Mackenzie King was the Prime Minister and he believed the crisis would pass, refused to provide federal aid to the provinces, and only introduced the moderate relief effort. Whereas, in the next election, Bennett defeated King and became the Prime Minister in 1930. The Liberal Party is defeated by the Conservative party. Bennett was a successful western business man and campaigned on high tariffs and large scale spending. He made three policies as a Prime Minister. F irst, he spent 20 million to the provinces, but there was few jobs created. Second, he rose the tariffs so the trade between foreign country became expensive and it would improve the finance in Canada. At last, he created work campus. They were located far in the woods; men worked for 20 cents a day; food was terrible and beds were full of insects. When Bennett became the Prime Minister, most Canadian people believed that he would lead them to overcome the depression. Therefore, Bennett had lots of pressure and each of his decision was highly attended. In the first four years, he did not spend too much federal aim on the recovery of economy. However, some Canadians started to doubt his policy and called for more spending on the recovery. In 1935, Bennett put more aid on the depression, but some Canadians started to change their minds and wanted King to be the Prime Minister in the following years. Some people criticized that Bennett was too radical and was a trouble maker. The result of the election was not surprising- King became the Prime Minister again. The Liberal Party came back! In 1935 the Liberal used the slogan “King or Chaos” to win a landslide. Promising a much-desired trade treaty with the U.S., the Mackenzie King government passed the 1935 Reciprocal Trade Agreement. Some experts said it marked the turning point in Canadian-American economic relations and reversed the disastrous trade war of 1930-1931, lowing tariffs, and yielding a dramatic increase in trade, and it revealed to the prime minister and the president that they could work together well. Moreover, King equalized payments to ensure all provinces could offer the same social services. Most people agreed that it was much more beneficial than the policies of Bennett.

Moreover, during the Great Depression, the government prohibited the immigrants to come into Canada because they already could not satisfy with their own citizens, they had no reason to let other people to immigrate to Canada. What action made most people aware was they started to send foreign people go back. Some people support this decision because it made more available resources and money for Canadians, but some people opposed the action because it was too cruel for those people especially who were in Asia. The data showed that about 10000 immigrants were deported by the government. Experts said the immigration policy would continue until several years of the economy of Canada get recovered.

In addition, the effects of unemployment were very severe because employment insurance and welfare payments did not yet exist. 1 in 5 Canadians depend on government relief. Therefore, pogey in Canada was lower than the lowest paying jobs to discourage people from wanting to be on it. Men had to wait in line for hours and declare their financial failure publicly so it was too cruel for some men that they would like to choose suicide rather than be insulted in public.

The economy is getting better since King signed the treaty with the America and most Canadian people believe King will lead them to overcome the depression this time. Canada has suffered since the U.S. stopped to buy their wheat. Therefore, all Canadians put their hope on the treaty and believe the U.S. is the real factor that can save them. Hopefully, the Great Depression will pass soon and Canadian economy can get flourish again.

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