Change and Continuity Essay

Aysar Younes

08/04/2014

Change and Continuity Essay

        Between 1930-1950, there were many political and economic changes and continuities over time in Canada.  An example is the change in the amount of unemployment. This came as a result of WWII, as well as the threat of the Soviet’s. These events opened up jobs in the military and industrial/manufacturing fields. Although there were many changes from the 1930-1950, many things continued to be the same. An example is regionalism as continuity. This is also a result of WWII. Propaganda emerging from WWII lead to the continuation of regionalism in Canada. Ultimately, Canada was very different at the time of 1930, than at 1950.

        By 1930, Canada was in a difficult situation. Economically, they were struggling. The stick market crash of 1929 ushered directly into the Great Depression. The result of this included rapid growth of unemployment (reaching a rate of nearly 30%), falling wages, deflation, and a gross nation product drop of almost 40%.  The time became known as the “Dirty ‘Thirties” due to Canada’s heavy dependence on raw material and farm exports, combined with a crippling Prairies drought. This means that Canada had an agricultural economy, and only had limited manufacturing, which was in Central Canada. Overall, Canada was economically instable in the early 1930s.

        Politics in the 1930s in Canada were very important considering it was the beginning of the Great Depression. At the time, R.B Bennett of the Conservative Party was the Prime Minister, and King George V was the monarch in the Constitutional Monarchy. Canada did not control their foreign policy; Great Britain did instead. They were very much still a Laissez-Faire government (the theory or system of government that upholds the autonomous character of the economic order, believing that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs). So there was very little social support and workers’ rights/laws. Strides for women rights had been made, such as the increase of women in the workforce, yet there was still plenty of discrimination in Canada. Over a decade after women had earned the right to vote, Asian-Canadians still had not, and there was limited immigration as well. Government discrimination also went way past just Asian-Canadians, as there was anti-Semitism, and the unfair treatment of the Natives also. Coming out of WW1, there was a high sense of regionalism because of the propaganda spread throughout the war. That very same propaganda lead to the “red scare”; this was the fear of communism from the Soviet’s spreading to Canada. In general, it was a time of political transition in Canada.

        By 1950, many things had changed both politically in Canada. The Prime Minister was now Louis St. Laurent, of the Liberal Party, and King George VI was the monarch. There was a change in Prime Ministers (R.B Bennett to Louis St. Laurent), political party (Conservative to Liberal), and monarchs (King George V to King George VI). King George VI had been King since 1936 and St. Laurent was elected in the 1948 election.  Now Canada had control of their foreign policy though, which wasn’t the case in 1930. They would sign treaties on their own and could make their own decisions, instead of having no option. This government had begun to move away from the “Laissez-Faire” system that was used in 1930. They went from having next to no social support, to a good deal of it. Social programs such as low-income support and children/family developments came to existence. This was a huge change from the “no government interference” mantra, the government used to go by. Social support linked to the upcoming of government-protected unions; another example of Canada moving from “Laissez-Faire” (They previously had little to no workers rights/laws). There was also less discrimination now in politics. Immigration restrictions were eliminated and Asian-Canadians could now vote. Another group that did not see as much discrimination was the Jews. This also was impacted by pity coming out of the war and how poorly they were treated.  All in all, Canada changed a lot politically.