Canada20s

Canada in the 1920's

  • Canada Joins League of Nations

    Canada Joins League of Nations
    Canada became a founding member of the League of Nations.
  • Treaty of Versailles in Effect

    Treaty of Versailles in Effect
    The Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War took effect. It established the League of Nations, an organization for international co-operation, with Canada as a founding member.
  • Period: to

    Group of Seven Exhibit

    The first exhibition of the Group of Seven was put on display at the Art Gallery of Toronto. The Group articulated a sense of a distinctly Canadian art, rooted in the Canadian landscape.
  • Canadian Forum Founded

    Canadian Forum Founded
    The Canadian Forum magazine was founded; it is Canada's oldest continually published political periodical.
  • Arthur Meighen Becomes PM

    Arthur Meighen Becomes PM
    Robert Borden resigned and was succeeded as Conservative prime minister by Arthur Meighen.
  • First Woman Cabinet Minister

    First Woman Cabinet Minister
    Mary Ellen Smith was appointed to the provincial Cabinet in BC, the first woman Cabinet minister in the British Empire.
  • Bluenose Launched

    Bluenose Launched
    The schooner Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
  • United Farmers Of Alberta Win

    United Farmers Of Alberta Win
    The United Farmers of Alberta won the provincial election, forming the government until 1935. They chose Herbert Greenfield as premier.
  • Parlbly Elected Cambinet Minister

    Parlbly Elected Cambinet Minister
    Irene Parlby was elected to the Alberta Legislature as an MLA for Lacombe in the United Farmers of Alberta government. Only the second woman in the British Empire to hold ministerial office, she was particularly active on issues related to public health care, improved wages for working women and married women's property rights.
  • Banting and Best Isolate Insulin

    Banting and Best Isolate Insulin
    Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the University of Toronto first isolated insulin. The first diabetes patient was treated on January 11, 1922. Banting and J.J.R. Macleod received the Nobel Prize for their achievement.
  • First Woman Elected

    First Woman Elected
    Agnes Campbell Macphail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons, and J.S. Woodsworth was the first socialist elected to the House. Macphail promoted the co-operative movement, peace, civil liberties and social reform.
  • Liberals Win Minority

    Liberals Win Minority
    In a federal election, the Liberals won a minority government with 116 seats. The Conservatives took 50, the Progressives 65 (there were 4 other members). Mackenzie King became prime minister.
  • King Becomes Prime Minister

    King Becomes Prime Minister
    W.L. Mackenzie King became prime minister of Canada for the first time.
  • United Farmers of Manitoba Win

    United Farmers of Manitoba Win
    The United Farmers of Manitoba won the provincial election, with John Bracken as premier.
  • Chanak Affair

    Chanak Affair
    Britain sent a telegram calling upon the Dominions to contribute soldiers in a demonstration of the Empire's solidarity against the Turks. PM King was noncommittal.
  • Halibut Treaty

    Halibut Treaty
    The "Halibut Treaty" with the US was the first treaty signed independently by Canada, without the participation of an Imperial delegate.
  • Chinese Immigration Act

    Chinese Immigration Act
    The Chinese Immigration Act was replaced by legislation that virtually suspended Chinese immigration on the day known to the Canadian Chinese as "Humiliation Day."
  • Bank Fails

    Bank Fails
    The Home Bank of Montreal failed, the first chartered bank to do so since the Farmer's Bank in 1911.
  • United Farmers of Canada

    United Farmers of Canada
    The Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association amalgamated with the Farmers' Union of Canada to create the United Farmers of Canada.
  • King-Byng Affair

    King-Byng Affair
    Mackenzie King's Liberals were defeated on a motion of censure. Governor General Byng refused to grant King's request to dissolve Parliament. Byng asked Arthur Meighen to form a government, which he did, on June 29.
  • Meighen Nonconfidence

    Meighen Nonconfidence
    The Meighen government was defeated in a nonconfidence motion.
  • King Forms Minority

    King Forms Minority
    In a federal election the Liberals and Conservatives reversed fortunes with the Liberals winning 116 seats and the Conservatives 91. The Progressives won 13 seats and the UFA 11; there were 14 others. King became prime minister again, forming a minority.
  • King Prime Minister Again

    King Prime Minister Again
    Mackenzie King became prime minister again.
  • Balfour report

    Balfour report
    The Balfour Report was adopted at the Imperial Conference, which met in London from October 19 to November 23. This was a resolution defining Britain and the self-governing Dominions as "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status."
  • Old - age Pension Introduced

    Old - age Pension Introduced
    The House of Commons approved the old-age pension plan.
  • Persons Case

    In the Persons Case, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided women were not "persons" who could hold public office as Canadian senators. In 1929 the British Privy Council reversed the decision.
  • William Wins Olympic Gold

    At the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Percy Williams of Vancouver won the gold medal in the 100 m sprint. He added gold in the 200 m August 1
  • Women Legally Persons

    The Imperial Privy Council ruled that women were legally "persons" and therefore could hold seats in the Canadian Senate.
  • Period: to

    Market Crash Ignites Depression

    The selling of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange accelerated, leading to panic selling and tumbling prices. By Black Thursday, October 24, the economic boom of the 1920s was in ruins and the Great Depression began.
  • Second Stock Market Crash

    A second stock market crash hit Canada.