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Causes Of The Great Depression In Canada

Decent Essays

The 1920’s, known for its fantastic times for the Canada. People were buying expensive things such as automobiles, toasters and investing in the stock market to make big money. Because of that people lived lavishly, until the 1930’s the Great Depression which affected many nations like Canada in many ways and made it the worst time to live. The 1930’s was the worst time to live in Canada because we had been affected Politically, Socially and Economically Politically during the 1930’s was not great because of a few different things. Firstly, there is the Hands-off policy by Mackenzie King who believed that the Stock Market Crash was temporary in the business cycle. During the 1929 winter, many provincial governments asked for help to deal with …show more content…

Firstly, When Richard Bennet came into power, he created what is known Relief Camps. They were in place so that problems of transients would no become a bigger problem. These men who worked were given food, shelter, army style clothing and .25₡ per day also these camps were built deep in the wilderness, away from towns and cities. This plan by Richard Bennett backfired because the relief camp workers rebelled which cause the On-to-Ottawa Trek and these camps gave no hope for a better future also showed that Bennett could not solve the problem of the transient. Secondly, During the Great Depression, there was increasing unemployment rates in every province some higher than the others because of how much they invested in the stock market. Due to rising unemployment levels, people from different communities started to leave their communities for a job elsewhere like other communities which created the issue of transients. Living in Canada even worse because they brought in fear and danger of being robbed because they do not have anything. Thirdly, Many people during this time were encouraged to “Buy now and Pay later” basically buying everything on credit and pay it later. Because of this, many families found themselves hopelessly in debt through buying on credit. With interest payments, many products ended up costing far more than what it was worth. Life in Canada difficult because many were in debt and …show more content…

One of such events that affected Canada economically is the Drought in the Dust Bowl. The Prairies became the worst place to live in Canada because the price of wheat has dropped from $1.60 per bushel to $.38 per bushel and because of that many farmers abandoned their farms to look for other jobs. Drought returned in 1933 and was five years long with limited amount rainfall which also caused the topsoil to turn into dust and caused dust storms due to too powerful winds. Because of the right conditions thousands and thousands of grasshoppers were born and damaged 80% of crops that remained. It was bad for Canada because it just lost the people who produced on of its primary products wheat and now the Canada has no choice but to buy wheat from other countries and those can price it for whatever they want because Canada is in need. Secondly, the Stock Market Crashed on October 29, 1929 “Black Tuesday.” Many people invested large amounts of money into the stock market because as the value of the stock increased the more money they made when they sold it and to many it became like an easy way to make money. For example, Canadian Marconi, a radio company should have sold at $1 but sold for $28 because the market value inflated. Canada was affected by this because when the Stock Market crashed people who invested hugely into stocks lost large amounts of because they sold them for a fraction of the what they purchased it. People took

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