RB Bennett had just taken over as PM of Canada

Bennett promise to end unemployment

He would use tariffs to blast onto the world market

Spent 20 million on the provinces for make work projects

By 1933 the depression was worsening still

Hundreds and thousands of farms and businesses were ruined

Mines, mills and factories from coast to coast were shutting down

A quarter of all Canadians were out of work

In 1928 farmers had purchased 17,000 tractors, in 1932, 832 were bought

For Canada, railways had represented growth and development

In the 1930’s they represented despair Thousands of men rode the train back

and forth across Canada in search of work

Transients were considered bums or hobo’s

The provinces could not cope with unemployed workers

Major General AGL McNaughton, head of the Canadian Army came up with the idea of relief camps

He calculated that for $1 a day including 20 cents pay a man could be housed, fed and put to work with simple tools

At first everyone welcomed the idea The mood soon changed Liberals branded Bennett a dictator

with Army run camps characterizing his rule

Some termed them slave camps Men felt like they were being cheated

of their lives and working for what reason

In April, 1935 communist organizers persuaded half the 7000 workers in BC to strike for work and wages

Having no success in Vancouver they decided to lobby the federal government

BC strikers would lead unemployed people from Vancouver to Ottawa

The 1200 young men who began the trip grew at every stop

The government viewed the trek as a start of a revolution

The government decided the trekkers should be stopped in Regina

Regina was chosen because it was the location of RCMP headquarters

The trek was halted and the leaders were allowed to continue on to Ottawa

Bennett was appalled Strikers in Ottawa remained peaceful

for a few days. Under the close eye of the RCMP they remain calm in Regina also.

Rallies were held in Regina’s Market Square

Suddenly violence erupted By midnight a policeman was dead

and 80 people were injured Bennett later insisted that he had

defeated a communist revolution Led to the Bennett government being

defeated in the fall of 1935

Bennett's tariffs helped out Manufacturers but not farmers

The 1930’s brought economic and natural disaster to the parries'

The drought of 1929 continued and by 1931 the topsoil of Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan began to blow away in the wind

Dust clouds were blown so far they could feel the dust on the ships in the Atlantic Ocean

In 1932, a plague of grasshoppers devoured every green living thing

The next year it was wheat rust and frost, followed by drought and hail

Farmers often lived off a bag of flour and a few vegetables to serve an entire family

In 1930, Canadians had voted for Bennett because he had promised them a cure for the depression

By 1932 four provinces were bankrupt

The liberals did not have the solution either

Canadians were looking for something new to ease the suffering

In 1932, William Aberhart from Alberta turned Social Credit into a political movement

Stated that it was the difference between the price paid to the producer and the price paid by the consumer which led to poverty

This difference would have to be made up by the government.

Meant to replace the injustice of capitalism

JS Woodworth was the leader Organized infighting Labor parties,

along with the progressives into the CCF

Outlined its policies in a document known as the Regina Manifesto

Gained much popularity in Canada

Introduced in US by Franklin Roosevelt Canadians were exposed to him via

radio Even Bennett was impressed The New Deal of 1935 called for

unemployment insurance, minimum wage, maximum hours, marketing boards to raise farm prices and government intervention

The liberals won the election of 1935 easily following Bennett and the conservatives inability to lift Canada from the depression

In 1938 King and the Liberals put the bank of Canada under government control

The economy was beginning to improve under a new reciprocity agreement with the United States