Report on The Great Depression in Canada

Introduction to Great Depression in Canada

The word Great Depression in Canada back in the early year 1929-39 is still considered to be one of the worldwide economic as well as social shock. Along with Canada, some of the few countries were affected as well. Millions and millions of people living in Canada lost their jobs, they became homeless completely and left hungry as well. This whole decade was known as the Dirty Thirties because of the crippling drought in the grasslands. Along with this, Canada was completely depending upon the raw material and farm exports from nearby countries. Prevalent losses of the jobs and then savings completely changed the shape of a country. Due to the situation, it led the Government to become more serious and take more interest inactiveness towards the economy.

Causes or Reasons of Great Depression in Canada

There still are many kinds of economists that are still debating on the fact that whether the great depression took place due to the stock market crash or not? However, many different results and theories clearly state that the reason behind this great depression was the widespread drops in the product prices of the world and then ultimately all of a sudden decline in demand and credit-related to economic. These are the most common factors that became the reason for unemployment on a large scale and all of a sudden decline in global trade as well.

Changes seen in Canada were completely melodramatic. Gross National Expenditure of Canada fell by almost 42% in the years between 1929 and 1933. By the year of 1933, almost 30 percent of the labor working in Canada was completely out of work. They had no source of income. Out of five people living in Canada, only one became completely dependent on the Government relief for their survival at least. The ratio of unemployment remained almost 12% until or unless the Second World War was started by the year 1939.

At that time, people started buying on the credit and the motto became much famous at that time “Buy now, pay latter” It helped people a lot. People started buying goods in the form of installments as it was not easy for the jobless people to buy directly through their credit cards.

Buying was being done on the margin at that time, while at the time of purchasing, stocks of some Canadians put 10% down with an idea of paying back the rest as soon as the price of stock goes up and selling was done. Investors also sought to cash it on much high prices but unfortunately, flooded market and their prices crashed down.

Overproduction was being done in the good times, it had encouraged the producers to increase the amount of production apart from what market demands or need. Stockpiling of the goods was done.

Impact of the great depression on the population of Canada

Impact seen on the population was a major one and it still can be seen while reading any kind of article related to the great depression. People still can feel their pain and it is considered to be a miracle for them how they survived in such a tough time. Several immigrants were also dropped in Canada. The birthrate of Canada was also dropped from 13.1 to only 9.7. This was the lowest ratio seen in the year of the 1960s. People at that time were jobless and they had nothing to eat, even they couldn’t feed their children properly. It was the worst period for a country like Canada and still, it is easily seen as one of the Great Depression in the history of this country. The government tried to help them all out as much as it was possible for them and only because of their smart actions and intelligent decisions the situation became better for all the Canadians. They were able to survive, no doubt many among them lost their lives but still if we see the population and the hard time most of them remained alive. So this was one of the biggest Depression and country could face but Canada did.

 References of The Great Depression in Canada

·         Calomiris, C.W., 1993. Financial factors in the Great Depression. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(2), pp.61-85.

·         Horn, M., 1984. The Great Depression of the 1930s in Canada (No. 39). Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association.