Canada 1919–1939: Exam Review Notes

Winnipeg General Strike (1919): mass labour protest; revealed gov’t–business alliance (Citizens’ Committee of 1000)
Chanak Crisis (1922) & King-Byng Crisis (1926): Canada refused automatic British lead ➔ growing foreign-policy independence
Halibut Treaty (1923), Balfour Report (1926), Statute of Westminster (1931): legal milestones to full sovereignty
Great Depression causes: overproduction, $\text{buying on margin}$ , U.S. dependence, uneven wealth
Stock Market Crash $29\,\text{Oct}\,1929$ → margin calls, bank failures
Bennett’s responses: relief camps, work projects, high tariffs, min-wage law, job insurance (largely ineffective)
Keynesian idea: gov’t deficit spending to spark recovery (influenced later policy)
Social Credit (Aberhart): $25$ /month “credit” to boost demand; CCF (Woodsworth→Douglas): democratic socialism, social safety net

Branch plants: U.S. factories in Canada to dodge tariffs; deepened U.S. control
First trans-Atlantic phone call (1927) & aviation feats (Lindbergh) symbolised 1920s tech boom
Assembly line (Henry Ford) cut costs, drove consumer culture

Xenophobia & antisemitism: restrictive immigration, MS St. Louis refusal, Christie Pits Riot (1933)
Scapegoating in hard times: Jews, immigrants, communists, unemployed
Adrien Arcand: fascist, pro-Nazi organiser

Famous Five (incl. Emily Murphy): Persons Case $1929$ → women “persons” in Senate eligibility; Cairine Wilson, first senator
Agnes Macphail: first woman MP $1921$ ; prison reform, rural issues
Flappers: challenged gender norms; emblem of Roaring ’20s
Group of Seven: landscape art fostering Canadian identity
Banting & Best (1921): insulin discovery
Tim Buck (Communist), J.S. Woodsworth (CCF), Tommy Douglas (Medicare father), W.L. M. King (long-time PM)
Charlie Chaplin films: highlighted Depression hardships

Unemployed: soup kitchens, “Bennett blankets,” relief camps ➔ On-to-Ottawa Trek ( $1935$ ) & Regina Riot
Employed: wage cuts, reduced hours, job insecurity
Farmers: drought (Prairie “Dust Bowl”), low prices, foreclosures; large surplus stockpiles

Discrimination in 1920s: racial minorities, women, Indigenous, Chinese; biased immigration
Prohibition (1918–20s): alcohol ban aimed at social reform; spurred bootlegging & organised crime; repealed when unpopular