Essay About Canadas Prairie Provinces And Great Depression Of The 1930S

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During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Canadas Prairie provinces
suffered more than any other area in Canada. This time frame brought for
the farmers many years of droughts and grasshopper plagues, as each year
got worse without any rainfall whatsoever. The impact of the Great
Depression on the Prairie provinces was devastating and its impact on the
region was social, political and economical. During this period
unemployment reached high levels, prices of products were falling and
purchasing power was getting very weak. To try to help out unemployed
people, mostly men, the government introduced relief camps. During the
1930s in Prairie Canada, the Great Depression created harsh conditions and
it was a struggle until it ended.
The event which triggered the Great Depression was the Stock Market
crash of October 24, 1929 in New York. Another important cause was that:
Later in the 1930s, the wide adoption of the gold exchange in
many countries was widely criticized as a great mistake which
greatly contributed to the severity and length of the Great
Depression. 1
In Canada, wheat, the most important export, was being over-produced
around the world, despite the fact that the 1928 supply of wheat was still
available in 1929.
A good reason for the stock market crash in 1929 was that,
the values of stocks of the New York Stock Exchange were
grossly over-valued, but government and business appeared to
ignore the signs. 2
Canadian revenues that came in from export sales were dependent
largely upon the United States who had the money for growth; the
commodities were grain, pulp and paper and metals. Then when the New York
crashed on October 1929, stock prices fell dramatically. When the stock
market crashed, the Canadian economy suffered after the United States
invoked high tariffs to shut out Canadian goods. In the Prairie provinces
of Canada, in addition to economic depression was the effect of the nine
years of drought and crop failures.
When the Great Depression plagued Canada, the country was not ready
for it; there are three main reasons why:
1) Seasonal unemployment was predictable since wages for
seasonal labour were high enough.
2) Cyclical unemployment and recovery in the past always
occurred eventually. Canada was a new world society, with
a developing farm frontier.
3) There was a working class political pressure. 3
Dependence on foreign trade of wheat contributed to Canadas main cause of
the Great Depression.
The Weather in the Prairies greatly contributed to the disastrous
effects which took place upon the Prairies during the 1930s. Crops which
were green and healthy in June, had reduced to nothing in two to three
weeks. The cause of devastation to the crops was usually from dust storms.
The drought created five to seven years of dried-out crops. A description
of the Prairie land was that
The Prairies were like a great rich land without rain. The