Why Is Prohibition Bad In Canada

Prohibition was a very bad time in Canadian history. Prohibition was when the Christian Women’s Temperance Union fought for the ban of alcohol and won in 1918, making all alcohol illegal. This made way for underground bars called speakeasies and alcohol smugglers called bootleggers. The banning of alcohol, more commonly known as prohibition was a bad decision by the Canadian government because of an increase in crime, downfall of the economy, and a increase in corruption.
Firstly, prohibition caused a very substantial increase in criminal activity in many cities throughout the country. The first most common crime was consuming alcohol in illegal bars called speakeasies. Gambling were most of the time present in the speakeasies as well. Speakeasies

were secret underground bars which were made and run by gangs and criminals. Some owners of speakeasies include Al Capone and “Lucky” Luciano. Gang activities grew as a result of speakeasies opening around the country and across the border mainly in Chicago and New York. Another crime that was going on at the time was known as bootlegging. Bootlegging is the practise of smuggling alcohol across and from the border illegally. Since the US got their ban two years later in 1920, large amounts of alcohol were brought to Canada by way of smugglers and gang members. After prohibition was enforced in the US, other types of illegal practises was started. Since alcohol was now illegal and rare to find anywhere, people started making their own alcohol in homes. The alcohol made were not as good quality as many people did not have all the ingredients to make such high quality products, but it did not stop people from trying. As a result of prohibition there was a big spike in criminal exercises, both in Canada and the US.
Secondly, as a direct result of prohibition, Canada’s economy had fallen tremendously. An example of this could be the six big alcohol distilleries losing profits when prohibition had started. The 6 distilleries included Seagram’s, Labatt’s, and Carling. When prohibition just started the companies would lose tons of money because they could not sell their products, which lead to a drop in Canada’s economy. Later on the many different distilleries would then reside to start selling products through bootlegging. This practise would just be adding to the problem with crime, while being down in the dumps as far as economy is concerned. Additionally some men would be leaving their jobs to join gangs, work in speakeasies, or produce their own alcohol. This furthermore worsens the problems and adds to the downfall of the economy. Altogether these many bad practises had lead the Canadian economy slumping.
Last but not least is, corruption, which was happening very frequently from 1918 to the 1920’s. Let's start with speakeasies again, they were very popular at the time and were known as secret bars. The word speakeasy meaning to speak easy or quietly about them, as they did not want officials and higher ups hearing about them. Little did they know that most of the policemen and executive people such as mayors were also attending the speakeasies, as they too were fed up at the law and wanted to drink. This can be described as corruption, or in a nutshell, not only do the people of Canada want alcohol to be legal, the ones who have to enforce the law as well want a change from the Canadian government's decision. Although the government was trying to help people control their drinking habits, they just made it worse by creating a larger problem.
In conclusion, the choice to ban alcohol by the Canadian government was a disaster as it just created three new problems. The one problem they tried to fix cause three even bigger problems, increased crime, increased corruption, and a fall in our economy. This big problem would not have been if the Canadian government did not make that crucial mistake in their decision making process.