1920s Boom & Bust

The Twenties: Boom & Bust

ž  Trade & Foreign Investment

ž  By 1920s the USA was Canada’s main trading partner

ž  In 1921, Canada exchanged 2.5x more with USA than Britain

ž  Lots of US foreign investment into Canada

ž  American Branch Plants

ž  U.S. market was bigger than Canadian market – U.S. could make & sell for less

ž  Canadian government put taxes called tariffs on American imports.

ž  Ex. In 1920 35% tariff on cars imported to Canada

ž  This protected Canadian jobs

ž  U.S. manufacturers built factories in Canada to avoid the tariff

ž  Branch Plants

ž  A branch plant is a factory or business operating in Canada that is owned by a foreign company.

ž  Did everyone benefit from the boom?

ž  Maritimers & Newfoundlanders were not doing so well economically.

ž  Area too far from center to attract investment

ž  Britain no longer big trading partner so not close anymore

WORKERS

ž  Business owners became rich, employees stayed poor

ž  Violent strikes in many coal districts

ž  Today we have unemployment insurance

ž  If we are sick, we get free medical care

ž  These social welfare programs did not exist in the 1920s

ž  VISIBLE MINORITIES

ž  Asians – Chinese, Japanese and Sikhs faced discrimination.  Many employers refused to hire Asians or paid them very low money.  Most lived in British Columbia

BLACKS

ž  Most blacks came from the USA

ž  Some were from loyalists, some escaped slaves

ž  They got right to vote at confederation

ž  Not treated as equals

ž  Separate schools, bad education, less jobs

ž  ABORIGINAL PEOPLES

ž  Traditional ceremonies & dances forbidden

ž  Government controlled their money

ž  Couldn’t vote

ž  Canada wanted to make all “Indians” into Canadians

ž  RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

ž  Starting in 1920 First Nations children age 7-15 had to live in government funded schools

ž  Goal: remove children from their home and culture

ž  Aim: Assimilation

ž  Traditional clothes, language, religions, all BANNED

ž  Forced to wear uniforms and become Christians

ž  Physical & sexual abuse 

ž  Playing the Stock Market

ž  If you wanted to start a business, you would need to spend money.

ž  $ from ?

• Your own, a business loan from a bank, or find partners, give them a share in your profits in exchange for their investing their $ in your businessown

ž  Companies that need a lot of money can sell shares in their business on the stock market

ž  Why do people buy shares (stocks)?

1. If share value rises, can sell stocks for profit
2. Shareholder may get a portion of company’s profits (dividend)

ž  People bought “on margin” – borrowed $ to buy stocks

ž  Black Tuesday

ž  Tuesday October 29^th 1929 the stock market crashed

ž  Desperate traders sold their shares for whatever they could get

ž  Black Tuesday affected North America & Europe

ž  Within one month a share of $10 became $5, by 1932 it became $1.50 or less

ž  One on four Canadians did not have a job

ž  With less $ to spend, shops closed down

ž  Next 10 years known as the GREAT DEPRESSION

ž  Causes of the crash

ž  Too much margin buying, production of goods, & American economic influence

ž  Not enough wages for workers or protection for people’s savings

ž  Caused an imbalance that made the entire world economy fall. 

Canada in the 1920s

—The Twenties: Growth & Change

—Immigration

—In 1921 Canada’s population was 8,787,949

—Less than 1% were from Asia or the Caribbean

—17% were born in Europe

—White people could enter Canada easily but coloured people could not

—Chinese Exclusion Act 1923

—1928 Law limit of 150 Japanese people per year

—Rural to Urban (country to city)

—Between 1871-1931 Canada’s population went from mostly rural to mostly urban.

—This is called urbanization

—This changed the areas of education, employment, leisure, and consumerism

—Education

—During rural 1800s eight years of education was enough

—In the 1920s 1/3 of students went to high school for 2 years or more

—Working class children left school between grades 6 and 8

—Middle and upper-class families finished high school

—

—Education

—In the 1920s 2% of students would go to University or College

—Today 40% of Canadians have post secondary education

—1920s had separate entrances for girls and boys

—Boys learned trades, girls learned to cook or become secrataries

—Employment

—Lots of JOBS in the 1920s!  Most for men.

—¾ of all factory jobs in Canada were held by men in 1921

—Most women had a job between their school years and marriage

—The New Consumerism

—1910 Niagara Falls used to make hydroelectricity

—

—Electricity was

   transforming

   the way people

   lived

—Gas and Electric Stoves

—Electric Toaster

—Electric Vacuum Cleaners

—Electric Washing Machines

—Radios

—Phonographs (record players)

—We have come a long way!

—Cars

—Cost was $400

—Half of Canadians could afford a car

—Changing Social Values

—The Roaring Twenties – time between WWI and the Great Depression

—Feeling of freedom, excitement, and a great economy

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—Women in Politics

—Five women ran for office in 1921 election, one was elected.

—Agnes Macphail

—Spent 25 years in politics

—Changed:

Minimum wage

Social benefits

Prison reform

Equal status for women

—The Persons Case

—Only “fit and qualified persons” could be senators

—Group of Alberta women – The Famous Five said women are persons

—Supreme court said no!

—Famous Five challenged it and won

—Cairine Wilson – first woman senator of Canada

—

—W.L. Mackenzie King unveiled plaque to the Valiant 5 in the Person's Case

—New Popular Culture

—Flapper:  young woman who dressed and acted in an unconventional way.

—They drove cars

—They did the Charleston – fast jazz dance

—They smoked cigarettes

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—By 1929 80% of radio programs were American

—New music – JAZZ

—1927 – “Talkies” invented (movies with sound)

—Five major American studios produced 90% of all films

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—The End of Prohibition (to ban alcohol)

—Early 20th century, liquor was cheap but caused problems

—The Temperance movement worked to ban alcohol

—Many thought it was wrong to drink when troops were fighting

—1915-1917 every province except Quebec had prohibition laws

—

—1920-1930 provinces cancelled prohibition.  After the war people wanted to drink

—Prohibition in the USA until 1933

—This caused an underground crime wave

—Chicago was a big crime city in the 1920s

—An Inventive Era

—Some Canadian inventions before 1920:

—James Naismith – Basketball

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—Sandford Fleming – Timezones

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—Reginald Fessenden – Wireless Radio Broadcast

—1920s Inventions

—Insulin

—Invented by Dr. Frederick Banting

—Diabetics can’t produce enough insulin to convert food into energy

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—Plug-in Radio

—Edward “Ted” Rogers

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—Snowmobile

— Armand Bombardier

—Death of his son pushed him to build a proper snowmobile

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