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The Spanish Flu was an epidemic following the first world war, which came to Canada through returning soldiers. One in four Canadians died from the spanish flu during this time, which resulted in two million deaths. Many people stayed home during this time, and many unessential buisnesses ended up being temporarily closed. -
Prohibition banned the importation, transportation, and production of liquor in and into Canada. Women groups were saying many things to outlaw alcohol, including that no alcohol would lower violence in the home. This succeeded, with crime rate dropping. Once Canada’s prohibition ended and the USA’s didn’t, illegal alcohol was smuggled over. -
The Winnipeg general strike was a period where the working class of Winnipeg, especially immigrants, wanted a change in the current system. They wanted decent wages, an eight hour day, and the right to bargain for better working conditions. The hit a road block when the government fought against them, worried they were ‘starting a revolution.’ -
Bloody Saturday is what marked the end of the Winnipeg General Strike. Which started as a parade peacefully protesting the arrest of strike leaders, started getting more heated. It was deemed a riot, and because of a fear of revolution, the Winnipeg government sent in the RCMP to deal with situation. A street car was tipped, many people were shot, and one person died. Four days later, for fear of people’s safety, strike leaders called off the strike. Worker’s rights continued to be withheld. -
Residential schools were government schools ran by churches, which took indigenous children from their families. These schools attempted to assimilate these children into white Canada. These schools abused the children in them in various ways, and scarred them all for life. These schools were truly Canada’s holocaust. -
The Group of Seven is a group of seven painters that came together to help depict the beautiful landscapes of Canada during that time. The group started a paint school, and was quite controversial because of them straying away from the art well known at the time. With inspiration from both French painting styles, and a focus on indigenous peoples, the Group of Seven remains a well remembered aspect of the 1920s. -
William Lyon Mackenzie King was a liberal politician in the 1920s, and was the 10th Prime Minister of Canada. He spent a total of 21 years in office. He became more unpopular with his choice to just ‘wait out’ the Great Depression, and his five cent speech directed towards conservative governments, ultimately led to liberals losing power in government, and a conservative one taking hold. -
Insulin was discovered during this time by Dr. Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and J.J.R. Macleod at the university of Toronto. This represented part of the boom in health science technology. With the creation of insulin, diabetes was now able to be controlled easily, and was no longer life threatening. Millions of lives were saved because of the discovery and artificial creation of this hormone, and diabetes patients could now have a table metabolism and live happy, healthy lives. -
Foster Hewitt’s first broadcast took place at the Arena Gardens, where he covered a hockey game. Later into the 1930s, he’d be given sole broadcasting rights from his own gondola at the Maple Leaf Gardens. This represents the success of the radio at the time, which got a lot cheaper and more accessible at the time. It connected Canada through both new, easily obtainable information, but also bustling entertainment. -
The Chinese exclusion act was passed during this time, to stop Chinese immigration into Canada. Students, merchants, and diplomats however, were exempt from this. Both from recent war and fear of the Chinese taking their jobs, people discriminated against them. Many families were spilt up because of this, with family members being left behind in China. This is another unfortunate event that shows all the racism and discrimination that minorities faced at the time. -
the Royal Canadian Airforce (RCAF) was Canada’s airforce from 1924 until 1968. The planes were used for both military and civil affairs. Mostly, the RCAF helped out with forest fires, smuggling along coasts, and other hard to reach destinations. The RCAF split up in 1968, due to forming of the Canadian Forced from the three branches of the Canadian military. -
The Jazz Singer was the first feature-length movie that featured synchronized dialogue. These were called ‘talkies.” This marked the end of the silent film era, and really kicked off the Golden Age of Hollywood. It represents how both film and jazz music was really popularized in the 1920s. -
The Person’s Case was the case where the famous five (Emily Murphy,
Nellie McClung, Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby, and Louise McKinney) fought for women to be considered qualified ‘persons’ (to run for government) under the eye of the law. While Canadian Senate decided they were not persons, the British Privy Council decided the opposite. With this meaningful and lastly decision, women would now be considered persons. -
Black Tuesday (October 29th, 1929) was the day the stock market crashed. People had either bought stocks on credit, or heard of bad things happening in the stock market and sold all of their stocks. On top of this, the banks lost all their money. Almost everyone was negatively impacted from this event. The stock market crash was also a large factor in the Great Depression which haunted the thirties. -
The Great Depression was a time of great economic loss in the in the 1930s. Many causes, not just Black Tuesday, lead to this. Which started as a prosperous time between wars, turned into a struggling time where many people were drowning in debt and had nothing to their name. The Great Depression was world wide, and affected everyone in one way or another. -
The Five Cent Speech was a speech delivered by William Lyon Mackenzie King, stating that the Canadian government should not give ‘five cents’ to provincial governments under conservative leadership. This was when job loss was high as a result of the Great Depression, and many people needed support. As a result of this speech, King was ridiculed and soon voted out of office in order to make room for a more conservative one. -
The Statute of Westminster was a law passed by the British Parliament that gave formal recognition to all countries with a Dominion status, full recognition. Canada was now able to be a self governing nation, following only its own laws. Canada agreed to stay as a apart of the Commonwealth of nations, which explains why our government is still a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. -
The On to Ottawa Trek was a social movement where unemployed men, in British Columbia relief camps, got fed up with life and boarded freight trains that were in their way to Ottawa. They were however, stopped in Regina by the RCMP, where they were accused of disobeying the law and going to overthrow the government. This resulted in a bought of violence where many people were injured, and a police officer lost their life. -
Prime Minister R. B. Bennett had made promises to fix the economic crisis while running for government. He knew people where angry with the government for the state of the economy. He had a plan to establish unemployment and social insurance, limit the hours of work, set minimum wages, guarantee the fair treatment of employees, and control prices to ensure fair profits. This was his new deal. However, the liberals came into power the next election. -
The government created the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) in 1933, which later became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) . They were created in effort to block out the amount of American media being consumed, and inspire Canadian made programs. The CBC continues to be a reliable Canadian news source to this day. -
World War II began near the end of the 1930s, and started another period filled with tremendous death and pain. Through out the 1930s, Adolf Hitler had been growing the German army and pulling Germany out of the Great Depression. At the very end of the decade, he was ready to fight and had built Germany from the ground up. When Germany invaded Poland along with the U.S.S.R, the allies declared war. Canada declared war 10 days after, on September 10th, 1939, to prove they weren’t tied to Britain.