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It was difficult to be declared eligible for relief.
For a single young man it was nearly impossible to get relief.
They were shipped out of the cities from 1932 to 1936 to Unemployment Relief Camps run by the Department of National Defence.
These camps became a national scandal as the conditions deteriorated.
The camps paid the men 20 cents a day for construction work in remote areas of the bush.
For a single young man it was nearly impossible to get relief.
They were shipped out of the cities from 1932 to 1936 to Unemployment Relief Camps run by the Department of National Defence.
These camps became a national scandal as the conditions deteriorated.
The camps paid the men 20 cents a day for construction work in remote areas of the bush.
The ‘On-to-Ottawa Trek’ was organized to protest pay and conditions in the relief camps.
The Trekkers planned to ride freight trains from Vancouver to Ottawa to confront R.B. Bennett’s government in Ottawa.
The Trek culminated in the Regina Riot of 1 July 1935, brought on by the attempted arrest of the Trek leaders by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
One off-duty policeman was killed, dozens of men were injured and 130 were arrested.
The Trekkers planned to ride freight trains from Vancouver to Ottawa to confront R.B. Bennett’s government in Ottawa.
The Trek culminated in the Regina Riot of 1 July 1935, brought on by the attempted arrest of the Trek leaders by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
One off-duty policeman was killed, dozens of men were injured and 130 were arrested.
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At the beginning of 1930, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, leader of the Liberal Party, called an election.
King’s opponent, Conservative R.B. Bennett, the millionaire lawyer and capitalist, successfully attacked King’s relief policy (King had promised to give not a ‘five-cent piece’ to a Conservative provincial government) to pull off an upset victory at the polls.
There was a sharp contrast between the two politicians.
Bennett was the explosive man of action, while King was the experienced politician and insider.
Bennett promised Canadians to use tariffs to “blast a way into the markets that have been closed to you.”
Fundamentally, both Bennett and King believed in the policies of a balanced budget, a sound dollar, and manipulation of the tariff to allow the private marketplace to bring about recovery.
Once elected, Bennett raised the tariff to unprecedented heights and made several efforts to revive trade, including the Ottawa agreements of 1932, which set up a system of Imperial preferential trade in opposition to the American Smoot-Hawley Act, which cut off Canadian exports to the United States.
King’s opponent, Conservative R.B. Bennett, the millionaire lawyer and capitalist, successfully attacked King’s relief policy (King had promised to give not a ‘five-cent piece’ to a Conservative provincial government) to pull off an upset victory at the polls.
There was a sharp contrast between the two politicians.
Bennett was the explosive man of action, while King was the experienced politician and insider.
Bennett promised Canadians to use tariffs to “blast a way into the markets that have been closed to you.”
Fundamentally, both Bennett and King believed in the policies of a balanced budget, a sound dollar, and manipulation of the tariff to allow the private marketplace to bring about recovery.
Once elected, Bennett raised the tariff to unprecedented heights and made several efforts to revive trade, including the Ottawa agreements of 1932, which set up a system of Imperial preferential trade in opposition to the American Smoot-Hawley Act, which cut off Canadian exports to the United States.
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The Bennett ‘New Deal’ was a Canadian version of the New Deal that President F.D. Roosevelt presented to the American people so successfully.
In January 1935, Bennett took to the airwaves, giving five stirring radio addresses declaring himself for reform and against the capitalist system and its inequities. It was the creation of Bennett’s closest advisors, William D. Herridge, his brother-in-law, and Minister to Washington, and his personal secretary, Rod Finlayson.
The announcement of the Bennett ‘New Deal’ helped Bennett regain the initiative for awhile but it did not go far enough and he was defeated in the 1935 election by W.L. Mackenzie King. The courts later declared most of Bennett’s ‘New Deal’ legislation unconstitutional.
Bennett’s ‘New Deal’ took attention away from Bennett’s Minister of Commerce H.H. Stevens who was the Chairman of the Royal Commission on Price Spreads which had taken on Canada’s retail giant Eaton’s because of its unfair business practices. Bennett had failed to implement the Stevens’ recommendations and Stevens had quit the Conservative party over it.
In January 1935, Bennett took to the airwaves, giving five stirring radio addresses declaring himself for reform and against the capitalist system and its inequities. It was the creation of Bennett’s closest advisors, William D. Herridge, his brother-in-law, and Minister to Washington, and his personal secretary, Rod Finlayson.
The announcement of the Bennett ‘New Deal’ helped Bennett regain the initiative for awhile but it did not go far enough and he was defeated in the 1935 election by W.L. Mackenzie King. The courts later declared most of Bennett’s ‘New Deal’ legislation unconstitutional.
Bennett’s ‘New Deal’ took attention away from Bennett’s Minister of Commerce H.H. Stevens who was the Chairman of the Royal Commission on Price Spreads which had taken on Canada’s retail giant Eaton’s because of its unfair business practices. Bennett had failed to implement the Stevens’ recommendations and Stevens had quit the Conservative party over it.
Many Canadians believed that it was the political system that was to blame for the Depression and out of this was born several movements of political reform.
Although they operated primarily at the provincial level, these movements were often quite popular and some were able to achieve power.
In Alberta, the inflationary theory of Social Credit was spread by ‘Bible’ Bill Aberhart.
The Union Nationale of Maurice Duplessis came to power in Québec on a reform platform and T. Dufferin Pattulo, the Conservative Premier in British Columbia promised ‘work and wages.’
At the federal level, J.S. Woodsworth gave moral leadership to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation’s (CCF) form of social democracy. H.H. Stevens formed his own Reconstruction Party to combat the banks and big interests after defecting from Bennett’s cabinet over the failure to implement the report of his Price Spreads Commission.
By the late 1930s, W.D. Herridge, R.B. Bennett’s brother-in-law, was leading the New Democracy Movement, an effort to unite all of the reform movements under one banner.
The Communist Party of Canada, while active during the 1930s, was forced underground when nine of its leaders were arrested and convicted of being members of an ‘unlawful association’ in 1931.
Although they operated primarily at the provincial level, these movements were often quite popular and some were able to achieve power.
In Alberta, the inflationary theory of Social Credit was spread by ‘Bible’ Bill Aberhart.
The Union Nationale of Maurice Duplessis came to power in Québec on a reform platform and T. Dufferin Pattulo, the Conservative Premier in British Columbia promised ‘work and wages.’
At the federal level, J.S. Woodsworth gave moral leadership to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation’s (CCF) form of social democracy. H.H. Stevens formed his own Reconstruction Party to combat the banks and big interests after defecting from Bennett’s cabinet over the failure to implement the report of his Price Spreads Commission.
By the late 1930s, W.D. Herridge, R.B. Bennett’s brother-in-law, was leading the New Democracy Movement, an effort to unite all of the reform movements under one banner.
The Communist Party of Canada, while active during the 1930s, was forced underground when nine of its leaders were arrested and convicted of being members of an ‘unlawful association’ in 1931.