Depression: Unemployment and Mackenzie King
Research Essay:
To what extent was the Canadian government successful in its attempts to deal with the Depression?
Carol Liang
After World War I, the North American economy was booming, Canada had the world’s fastest growing economy. The start of the Depression came as a surprise to Canadians. When the stock market in the US, the biggest exported target for Canada’s primary resources after war, crashed, they reduced their demand for the products, people in Canada’s primary industries went bankrupt, unemployment rate raised from four point two percent to thirty percent, people could no more effort the luxurious lives, they did not buy much goods, which made other Canadian companies bankrupt, within a year millions of Canadians lost their jobs. Canadian economy crashed. Besides, the Prairies were hit by a disastrous drought. That made things even went worse. Government was faced on so much economic pressure the country turned to politics to hopefully clean up the situation that they were facing every day. In my opinion, Canadian government could be more effective in its attempts to deal with the Depression.
At the start of the Depression, Mackenzie King was the Prime minister of Canada was doing nothing. He was not prepared to deal with a crisis on the scale of the Depression at all, and he believed that the crisis would pass, and put the financial help responsibility on the municipal and provincial governments. However, the provincial and municipal governments were already in debt after an expansion of infrastructure and education at that time. When the Conservative, the opposition party, asked why some provincial governments were not being helped by the federal government, King's government slashed spending "Not a five cent piece" to any Conservative provincial government. He could not understand how unemployment became a major issue for Canadian voters. King's government lost the election in 1930 because of their attitude for the Depression.
The country
To what extent was the Canadian government successful in its attempts to deal with the Depression?
Carol Liang
After World War I, the North American economy was booming, Canada had the world’s fastest growing economy. The start of the Depression came as a surprise to Canadians. When the stock market in the US, the biggest exported target for Canada’s primary resources after war, crashed, they reduced their demand for the products, people in Canada’s primary industries went bankrupt, unemployment rate raised from four point two percent to thirty percent, people could no more effort the luxurious lives, they did not buy much goods, which made other Canadian companies bankrupt, within a year millions of Canadians lost their jobs. Canadian economy crashed. Besides, the Prairies were hit by a disastrous drought. That made things even went worse. Government was faced on so much economic pressure the country turned to politics to hopefully clean up the situation that they were facing every day. In my opinion, Canadian government could be more effective in its attempts to deal with the Depression.
At the start of the Depression, Mackenzie King was the Prime minister of Canada was doing nothing. He was not prepared to deal with a crisis on the scale of the Depression at all, and he believed that the crisis would pass, and put the financial help responsibility on the municipal and provincial governments. However, the provincial and municipal governments were already in debt after an expansion of infrastructure and education at that time. When the Conservative, the opposition party, asked why some provincial governments were not being helped by the federal government, King's government slashed spending "Not a five cent piece" to any Conservative provincial government. He could not understand how unemployment became a major issue for Canadian voters. King's government lost the election in 1930 because of their attitude for the Depression.
The country