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Spanish Flu
The "Spanish" flu or influenza flu, first went through the trenches but wasn't found until after the war. It spread all throughout the world and killed more than 50,000 people. Most were between the ages 20 and 40. There were 3 waves of the "Spanish" flu each one killing more and more people until more than 50,000 people died. There was no vaccine or medication created so they had to just wait it out. -
Suffrage
Women in most provinces were allowed to vote in provincial elections unless they were First Nations. Women could also vote in federal elections. The only province that didn't allow women to vote until 1940 was Quebec. In 1919, women we finally able to run for parliament. -
Immigration Act
When soldiers finally came home after ww1, there was major unemployment. As unemployment increased, immigration policies denied more people. This was because they didn't want immigrants taking the few available jobs. In 1919 an immigration act was put in place that barred people from coming to Canada from countries that had sided with the Central Powers, illiterate, or people who had certain beliefs or practiced. -
Bloody Saturday
There was a strike called the Winnipeg General Strike. Many war veterans, firefighters, postal workers, and police officers joined this strike. They were striking because employers wouldn't negotiate a wage increase. People got the Canadian mountain police involved because they feared that there was going to be violence or an attack. 100 people were injured on June 17 and one man died and another later due to injuries. -
The discovery of Insulin
Children were most commonly affected and diabetes was usually fatal. A doctor named Frederick Banting believed that the treatment t for diabetes was to inject insulin. The first insulin was taken from animals. It was used on a 14-year-old and was successful. He was then awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. This changed history and saved many lives. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
This act banned all Chinese immigration. People who were Chinese and already in Canada had the option to either stay in Canada and be alone or move back to their families in China. This act stayed until 1947. Although it was eventually removed, it was still common that there were limits to which nationality and race you were. -
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is the prejudice or dislike of someone who comes for a different or certain country. There were separate schools made for people of colour and they weren't given hardly as many opportunities as white people. There was also prejudice against immigrants from China, Germany, Japan, India, and many more that weren't British or French. -
The creation of the telephone
The first telephone call was in 1876 but the first trans-Canada call was in 1916 made from Montreal to Vancouver. Telephones were a luxury item until the innovations made them cheaper and by 1927, 13 out of every 100 people had a phone. When using a telephone there were two pieces, an earpiece and a piece in which you speak into. On the other end, there was a person, commonly a woman, who would connect you to the person you wanted to speak to. -
Child labor laws
As Canada became urban, children started leaving the farms they worked at and instead worked in factories, mills, and mines. These children didn't have the correct skills for the jobs and they were underpaid. by 1929, laws were finally passed that children under the age of 14 weren't allowed to work in factories and mines. Although, this law didn't completely fix child labour. some children that were under-aged continued to work full time but not in factories or mines -
Persons Case
Women could vote but were still given many restrictions on what they can and can't do. One of the things that was difficult for them to do was be appointed judges and senators. Their judgements weren't respected or taken seriously by male lawyers. This was mainly due to the fact that women weren't seen as people. On October 18, 1929, the supreme court ruled that Canadian women are people. -
Stock Market crash
During the war, wheat prices reached up to $2.37 a bushel in Saskatchewan but suddenly dropped after the war ended. Although because of tariffs on other countries' wheat, prices started and continued to fall. Later on, there was drought and bad weather so farmers weren't able to grow crops. After the bad weather, grasshoppers swarmed the crops and destroyed them. In one year, 14,000 farmers were left with hardly any money because they had no crops to harvest so they abandoned their farms. -
Crop failure
The land was hit with drought, storms, and high temperatures which were poor conditions to grow crops. In July of 1936, the previous winter was very cold but that summer was very hot and dry with little to no rain. When winds finally died down, grasshoppers came and ate all the crops. Throughout the crop failure, more than 14,000 farmers gave up and left their farms because there were no crops so, therefore, no money or food. -
The Canadian Wheat Board
After the war, the grain supply was short so the Board of Grain Supervision was established to make sure the delivery prices of the grain were steady. When the stock market crashed in 1929 prices dropped by a lot. Since the prices were so low for so long the federal government set up the Canadian Wheat Board. This is where farmers would support (later it would become compulsory) prairie pools. In 2012, the CWB couldn't buy or sell wheat or barley. -
Bombardier
Bombardier Inc was created by Joseph-Armand Bombardier. As a teen, he found an issue with the roads with winter weather. He created the first snowmobile. This helped people get around in the snow and winter terrain with more ease. These vehicles were a huge deal in 1936-1937 and he created a small factory to make snowmobiles and many more years down the road, his company would expand to a well-known multinational transport company that is today worth billions of dollars. -
The St. Louis
Jews that were fleeing from the Germans. They boarded a boat called the St. Louis and sailed to Cuba but were not allowed in. They then turned to Canada and the US but they didn't want to accept them either. They were then sent back and some were accepted into European countries. More than half of the Jews were later killed by Nazis.
