What were the “Dirty Thirties” known for?
- A wartime boom in manufacturing
- High unemployment, businesses wiped out and a terrible drought in Western Canada
- The building of the CPR
- The discovery of oil in Alberta
Answer: High unemployment, businesses wiped out and a terrible drought in Western Canada
The stock market crash of 1929 started the Great Depression, called the “Dirty Thirties.” Unemployment reached 27% in 1933 and many businesses failed. Western farmers were hit hardest by low grain prices and a terrible drought. The “Roaring Twenties” before it were boom times.
Learn more: Between the wars
- After the First World War, the British Empire became a free association of states called the British Commonwealth of Nations.
- Canada is still a leading member of the Commonwealth, with India, Australia, New Zealand and several African and Caribbean countries.
- The “Roaring Twenties” were boom times with low unemployment.
- The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression, or the “Dirty Thirties.”
- Unemployment reached 27% in 1933, and many businesses were wiped out.
- Farmers in Western Canada were hit hardest, by low grain prices and a terrible drought.
- There was growing demand for a government social safety net: minimum wages, a standard work week and programs such as unemployment insurance.
- The Bank of Canada, a central bank that manages the money supply and brings stability to the financial system, was created in 1934.
- Immigration dropped, and many refugees were turned away, including Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939.