1918-1939

Canada Between Two Wars

SOCIAL UNREST AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The First World War had been a trying time for Canada. In a population of barely eight million, more than 60,000 Canadians had perished while on active service and some 50,000 others had died at home from the disastrous 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. In addition to the resulting difficult social and familial dislocation, the war also had imposed bitter political strife and linguistic discord. It had been expensive and in its aftermath, Government veterans’ disability pensions and civil re-establishment programs would mean additional costs. Jobs became scarcer with the closing of war industries and hundreds of thousands of men returning to the workforce. There was no welfare state at this time and many Canadians struggled to adapt to difficult postwar conditions. The deeply divisive Winnipeg General Strike in 1919 was symptomatic of this desperate situation.

The Liberals, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, took office in December 1921 on promises of economic renewal and the restoration of social cohesion. But western Canadian alienation had produced the Progressive Party, which held the balance of power in the House of Commons. It was the beginning of a three-party system and a fractured political landscape. In the Maritime Provinces, mine closures led to labour conflict and political unrest.

In October 1929, the New York stock market collapsed leading to corporate failures and widespread unemployment throughout North America; it was the beginning of the Great Depression. Canada was hit especially hard and in 1930 voters rejected King in favour of R.B. Bennett’s Conservatives. But the economy continued to spiral downward. By the winter of 1933, the worst period of the crisis, the national unemployment rate hit a staggering 32%, worse in some urban centres, and thousands of Canadians were impoverished. Canada relied on the exports of primary goods for its economic well-being but international (especially American) protective tariffs on imports made it difficult for Canada to be competitive. A lengthy and devastating drought in the west resulted in massive crop failures and thousands of farm families losing their homes and livelihood. It was not until the end of the decade that conditions improved, but even in 1939, the country suffered under a double-digit unemployment rate.

Black and white photograph. A man stands on the side of a road, flanked by fields. Despite the black and white colouring of the photo, it is easy to tell how dry the ground is. Dirt drifts through the air. — Drought Conditions

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Black and white photograph. Cargo train cars on a track, groups of men mingle nearby. Hundreds of men sit on top of the cars. — March on Ottawa

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Black and white photograph. A small room with low, curved roof. Bunk beds, many filled with men, line both walls. There are tables in the middle of the room. Men stand around, or sit at the tables. — Interior of a Sleeping Hut

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Black and white photograph. Men in long coats march down a city street. Several hold signs. — The Single Men's Unemployed Association Parade

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INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL PROGRESSION

Despite the economic depression, progress was made in other areas. Although Canada had been a colony in 1914, the impact of the war and Canadian troops’ battlefield successes stimulated a desire among many Canadians for greater national autonomy and international recognition. In 1919, Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the war with Germany, and joined the newly-created League of Nations as a member state in its own right. At the 1923 and 1926 Imperial Conferences, Prime Minister King had forcefully insisted that the Dominions gain independence of action on the international stage and not be bound automatically to British decisions or policies, especially on the issue of participating in a war. The First World War had nearly broken the country and Canada needed to make its own decisions. In the late 1920s, Canada opened legations and embassies in Washington, Paris, and Tokyo. In 1931 the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster which granted all of the self-governing Dominions equality of status with Britain in international affairs. Canada was no longer a colony. Still, Canada remained a member of the British Commonwealth and British foreign policy continued to influence Ottawa.

Typed government document. — Statute of Westminster

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The Statute of Westminster formalised the relationship between Great Britain and the Dominions that had been established by the Balfour Declaration several years earlier at the Imperial Conference in 1926. Laws passed in British Parliament would no longer automatically apply to the Dominions, including Canada. Please find a partial transcription below.
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THE "WAR TO END ALL WARS"?

Many people hoped that the First World War had been the ‘war to end all wars’. This view, combined with economic troubles and budgetary restraints, led Canada to almost completely demobilize in 1919 and reduce its forces to fewer than 5,000 full-time military personnel. For a time, the Royal Canadian Navy consisted of only two ocean-going ships while the Royal Canadian Air Force, created in 1924, performed mainly civilian duties such as aerial mapping and forestry protection. There was little pay and even less equipment for part-time military reservists. During the Great Depression, Canadians worried more about their jobs and families than the state of the armed forces. Without obvious enemies, why spend scarce resources on the military?

But by the mid-1930s, Canada began to modernize and re-equip the armed forces. The defence of Canada’s sea coasts and its own territory was the top priority; the Government allowed that Canadian forces might be available to assist Britain in the event of a major war, but nothing was promised in advance. When Prime Minister King returned to office in October 1935, he pursued a cautious policy of rearmament which favoured naval and air forces. In the event of a future war, he wanted to ensure national unity by avoiding conscription. A large army might entail heavy losses, leading to the need for conscription, and he discouraged the idea of a large expeditionary force.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933 and quickly established a ruthless dictatorship. Germany seized Austria in 1938, and occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938-39. Italy, another dictatorship, attacked Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 and occupied Albania in 1939. After invading Manchuria in 1931, Japan attacked China in 1937. Britain and France appeased these brutal regimes in an effort to avoid another devastating world war – a policy supported by most Canadians. But by 1937 the Canadian Government had more or less accepted that if Britain went to war, so would Canada. King made this clear in the House of Commons in March 1939.

The Nazis’ military aggression led directly to the Second World War. In August 1939, Germany insisted on territorial concessions from Poland. Finally abandoning ‘appeasement’, Britain and France earlier had pledged to assist the Poles and stop Hitler. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and, two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun.