The Great Depression in Canada

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Canada suffered its longest and most terrible economic depression in its history between 1929 and 1939. It is now known as the Great Depression. This essay will demonstrate the major causes, political, economic and social consequences, and the government’s solutions from the Great Depression. The Great Depression affected all of Canada and is a key part of our history. It is important that we learn from it so we can prevent it from happening again.

There were many causes for the Great Depression. The first and one of the largest was the stock market crash. Before 1929 the stock market was flourishing and everyone wanted to buy stocks. People were so confident in the stock market that they were buying “on margin”, which meant that brokers would lend them 10% of the money they invested (D1). The problems began when stocks were being over speculated. When people began to realize this, they began selling there shares. On October 29, 1929, 16 million shares were sold (D9). This day became known as “Black Thursday”, the day the stock market crashed (D12). The second reason was the overproduction of goods. Factories had already produced too many goods and now there was no demand for them. The government began to raise tariffs to protect Canadian industries but things only led downhill from there.

There were two major political consequences of the Great Depression. The first was that new political parties were formed in Canada. The new political parties were the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the Social Credit Party, and the Union Nationale (UN). The CCF was founded by J.S. Woodsworth and believed in the establishment of minimum wage, accident and sickness insurance, old age pensions and unemployment insurance. The Social Credit Party was founded by William Aberhart. He believed that governments should issue money to everyone so that they could buy goods in a form of “social credits”. In the 1935 provincial elections he took 56 of 63 seats giving him a total victory. The UN was founded by Maurice Duplessis due to the union of Action Liberale Nationale and the Conservative Party. They promoted the traditional values of the Catholic Church and believed in a rural lifestyle. The second political consequence was a conflicted relationship between the federal and the provincial governments. The depression showed the federal government that provincial governments did not have enough money to carry out significant projects.

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