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Stock Market Crashed - Black Tuesday
The Stock Market in New York fell in value as people tried to sell their stocks and caused the prices to fall more. Over the next 3 years the values of stock fell 80% and caused massive unemployment due to so much money being lost in the stock market in Canada and Europe. This is often seen as the start of the Great Depression. -
PM King loses the election
With the start of the Great depression, PM William Lyon Mackenzie King lost the election to Richard Bedford Bennett who became Canada's new Prime Minister. One of the reasons he lost was that he did not offer to do anything to help people in the Depression find jobs. He told voters that provinces that voted against him would not receive a nickel in relief money. -
Relief Camps announced
The governments of BC and Canada decided to open camps for unemployed young men to give them a place to live, food, and work. They started with building the TransCanada Highway. Eventually more and more camps opened in Canada. The camps were run the provinces or the military. They were very similar to military barracks. I those who went to the camps wanted to leave , they were free to do so. The camps lasted until 1936 when the government closed them. -
Unemployment reaches 30%
Unemployment had been rising since the Stock Market Crash. By 1933 it had hit its lowest point when 30% of all workers had not job. This was even worse on the prairies where unemployment was over 40% because the drought had destroyed the crops that farmers hoped to sell. -
Christie Pits Riot
A swastika banner was hung at a baseball game in Toronto between Jewish and Italian immigrants against white Christian players. The game was attended by 10,000 spectators (about 1000 supporting the Jewish players) according to Toronto newspapers. This got the Jewish players riled up and a fight broke out at the game with bats. After the first fights there was a rumour Jewish player was killed which led to a second brawl that finished after 1:30am. -
Prohibtion Ends in the USA
The buying and selling of alcohol became legal in the USA. As a result, many Canadians who were employed selling and transporting illegal alcohol to the US lost their work. Prohibition had ended in the 1920s in Canada so the last market for bootleggers was the United States. This also meant that American alcohol producers could re-open their factories and begin making alcohol to sell in Canada. -
Dionne Quintuplets were born
The Dionne Quintuplets were born in Callandar, Ontario which was a small town north of Toronto. This was the first time 5 babies were born together and survived. Many credit the skills of Dr. Dafoe in making sure that all 5 lived. Eventually the Ontario government would take over their lives and rasing them and they lived much of their time growing up on display in "Quintland". They received no money from this until the 1980s when they sued the government. -
On to Ottawa Trek began
Unhappy men who worked at in relief camps wanted to take their problems to the government in Ottawa. This led them to start protests around Vancouver. When these did not work they decided to take their problems to the PM in Ottawa. As a result, thousands of the strikers from the camps jumped onto trains leaving Vancouver to go to Ottawa. -
Regina Riot
The Regina Riot ended the On-to-Ottawa Trek when the protesting Trekkers were arrested by the RCMP. Trekker had been offered a free train ticket to go home but many continued their protests from the On-to-Ottawa Trek. The arrests led to violence with the police firing guns into the crowds who they had encircled in the center of the town. Two people died with hundreds injured in the violence. The remaining Trekkers left Regina and went home. -
R.B. Bennett loses the election
R.B Bennett lost the election to William Lyon Mackenzie King because people thought he had not done enough to solve the Depression and for how he handled the On to Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot. The new PM King stole many ideas from Bennett to solve the Depression when he became PM. -
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion goes to Spain
Canadians volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War to support democracy and to stop the military of Spain from taking over the country. All of these soldiers were volunteers and included Dr. Norman Bethune who invented a way to give blood transfusions o the battlefield. He later became a hero of China in the Civil War there. -
Drought ended
Canada had been in a drought since 1929. Farmers lost lots of money because the food they planted dried up before it grew enough to be harvested or it was eaten by grasshoppers. The drought was so bad that during the summer there would be large wind storms that blew the dried up dirt into the air creating "black blizzards". drought has encouraged the government to do research to try and help the farmers as well to grow crops that resisted drought. -
Bluenose wins its last International Fisherman's Cup
Starting in 1921, the Bluenose won the most famous and prestigious sailing race - the International Fisherman's Cup. It won this race EVERY yea until 1938 and became a symbol of pride for the people of Canada's east coast - especially people in Nova Scotia. Eventually the Bluenose would become the symbol used on the Canadian dime. -
National War Memorial unveiled
King George VI visited Ottawa to unveil a new statue. This statue remembered and commemorated Canadian soldiers who served in World War One. This was the first time a memorial for the all of the soldiers from across Canada were recognized in a single memorial to a single war or battle. Later it would need to be modified to reflect Canada's involvement in WWII and the Korean War. In the year 2000, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added with a Canadian soldier who fought at Vimy Ridge. -
St. Louis Returned to Europe
Th St. Louis was a ship of Jewish refugees leaving Nazi persecution in Europe. They went to Cuba where they had visas to enter. Cuba rejected their visas. They tried the United States and were not allowed to stay. Their last hope was Canada but the government of Canada said no. Canada said that no Jewish immigrants was "too many". The Jewish refugees had to return to Europe. Some went to Britain, Holland, France, and Belgium The rest went to Germany. Over 25% died in the Holocaust.