Canada in the 1920s and the Great Depression

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing Canadian history throughout the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, covering social movements, inventions, economic crises, government policies, and marginalized communities.

Fascism

A political system that promotes strong government, national pride, obedience to authority, and the suppression of political opposition, frequently utilizing fear, violence, and propaganda to control populations.

On-to-Ottawa Trek

A spring 1935 protest in which more than $2,000$ unemployed men from British Columbia relief camps boarded freight trains toward Ottawa to demand better wages, the right to organize, and genuine solutions to unemployment from Prime Minister R. B. Bennett.

Regina Riot

A violent clash on July 2, 1935, that occurred when Prime Minister R. B. Bennett ordered the RCMP and local police to block the Trekkers at Market Square in Regina, resulting in one police officer killed, dozens injured, and over $100$ protesters arrested.

Nellie McClung

A Canadian reformer and activist who fought for mothers' allowances, access to birth control, and legal protections for widows.

Anna Dexter

Canada's first female radio broadcaster, who was nicknamed the "Queen of the Air Waves."

Persons Case (1929)

A landmark 1929 legal decision establishing that women are officially considered "persons" under the law and are eligible to sit in the Canadian Senate.

Buying on Margin

The speculative practice of purchasing stocks without paying the entire cost upfront, causing buyers to fall deeply into debt to their lenders if market prices collapsed.

Black Tuesday

October 28, 1929, the day the stock market crashed as panicked investors sold off all their stocks simultaneously, causing prices to collapse and billions of dollars to vanish within days.

Relief

Limited government financial aid provided during the Great Depression, typically distributed as food vouchers and coupons rather than cash to applicants who proved they had exhausted all assets and job searches.

Shanty Towns

Makeshift squatter settlements constructed from scrap wood and cardboard during the Great Depression that lacked running water, electricity, heating, or air conditioning.

Dust Bowl

An ecological and agricultural disaster in the Canadian Prairies during the 1930s caused by severe drought and high winds that blew away crops, seeds, and topsoil.

Economic Exclusion

Systemic discriminatory practices during the Depression where Black, Chinese, and Asian Canadians were "fired first and hired last," barred from joining labor unions, and systematically denied relief and housing.

Temperance Movement

Social campaigns organized by groups advocating for the reduction or complete cessation of alcohol consumption, asserting that alcohol was the root cause of poverty and child neglect.

Prohibition

Legislation enacted in most Canadian provinces during the First World War making the manufacture, transportation, purchase, and consumption of alcohol illegal, except for scientific, medical, or religious purposes.

Moonshine

A slang term for alcohol illegally brewed or distilled inside private homes during Prohibition.

Bootlegging

The illicit manufacturing, distribution, and selling of alcoholic beverages during Prohibition.

Speakeasies

Establishments that secretly and illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition era.

Rumrunner

A person or vessel engaged in transporting alcohol legally out of Canada to smuggle it unlawfully into the United States.

Relief Camps

Isolated labor facilities established in 1932 under the Department of National Defence where single unemployed men received food, shelter, and work clothes in exchange for harsh manual labor at a rate of $\$0.20$ per day.

Riding the Rails

The act of hitchhiking or hopping onto moving freight trains by thousands of unemployed young Canadian men traveling indefinitely from town to town in search of work.

Branch Plant

A factory or business operating in Canada but owned by an American parent corporation, created to manufacture goods locally and circumvent Canadian tariffs.

Insulin

A groundbreaking medical substance developed in Toronto in January 1922 to treat diabetes.

Ford Model T

The most widely purchased automobile of the 1920s, which cost $\$425$ in 1925 and prompted widespread construction of modern roads across Canada.

Residential Schools (1920 Amendment)

An institutional school system made legally mandatory in 1920 for all Indigenous children aged 7 to 16, characterized by widespread neglect, high death rates, and enduring trauma.

Bush Pilots

Former military pilots from the First World War who utilized airplanes during the 1920s to transport passengers and supplies into Canada's remote northern frontiers.

Talkies

The revolutionary sound films that emerged in the mid-1920s, rapidly replacing traditional silent movies.

Mary Pickford

A Canadian-born movie star who starred in 52 full-length silent and sound films, co-founded her own production company, and became the first actress in North America to earn $\$1\text{ million}$ a year.

Flapper

A 1920s cultural movement of young women who rebelled against traditional social codes by wearing shorter knee- or calf-length dresses, bobbed hair, red lipstick, and heavy eye makeup.

Group of Seven

A prominent collective of Canadian landscape painters formed in 1920 who broke from European traditions to depict the Canadian wilderness through direct immersion in nature.

British Home Children Program

A child migration initiative beginning in 1869 that sent orphaned and impoverished Scottish and British children to Canada under the premise of a fresh start, frequently subjecting them to long hours of unpaid farm labor.

Immigration Act of 1919

Canadian immigration legislation designed to exclude illiterate applicants and restrict specific nationalities by mandating that arriving adults possess $\$250$ and children possess $\$125$.