Daily Maximum Ontario

• 85 Victoria St.
  

• Toronto, Ontario
• Canada
  
• 905-554-3345

Question: I don't understand all these new slang terms? What are Whiskey Smugglers and Rum Runners and why are there so many around?

Answer: Great question Anna, firstly in the 1920's Prohibition was placed by the government. This meant alcohol was illegal all over the United States. Canadians saw this as an opportunity to give the Americans what they really wanted which of course was booze. By smuggling alcohol, Canada became very successful, making millions. Rum runners would be the ones steering speedboats across the Great lakes to provide alcohol for many Americans. Whiskey smugglers pretty much played the same role, they also brought alcohol into the United States. As you can tell alcohol was a huge market and people just had to get their hands on some, that's why there were so many rum runners and whiskey smugglers. I'm not quite sure if you know this but the law was passed and alcohol became legal in 1933.

Question: Can you explain to me what happened on Black Tuesday

Answer: Dear Jane; let me begin by telling you a little bit about "Black Thursday". In July 1929 the price of wheat began to rise. Shortly after there were reports of large amounts of wheat surplus, which meant there was too much wheat for sale. With the abundance of wheat, prices began to drop. This resulted in the plummet of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. People were desperate to get wheat sales but no one was willing to buy. Millions were lost and the day was known as Black Thursday. Now to answer your question Jane. On Black Tuesday things only got worse. Five days after the Winnipeg Grain Exchange plummeted, the stock exchange in New York crashed. The crash didn't happen all at once ,there was a slow decline, eventually there was no way of a recovery which then of course resulted in the crash. The day the crash occurred is now known as Black Tuesday.

Question: I don't understand all these new political parties, Social Credit, Union Nationale and Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation? Please describe them to me.
Answer: Dear John I'll start with the Social Credit party. The Social Credit party was created by William Alberta. Alberta's goal was to put more money into peoples pockets, that way citizens would begin to buy more merchandise. With this idea new jobs would be created and the Depression would be over. Alberta's plans were to give citizens social credit of $25 a month, the money given could be used towards goods and services. With these promises Alberta's party won the provincial election in 1935.Now moving on to Union Nationale. Many of the French-speaking community were not pleased and were certain the economic issues were being caused by the English-speaking economy. This is the reason most French speakers stood by Union Nationale. The leader of the party was Maurice Duplessis and it was founded in 1935 the same year the social credit party was elected. They promised to protect religion, language and culture for all French Canadians. This promise gave the party their election win in 1936 in the Quebec election. Lastly we have the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. This party was founded in 1933 with the leadership of J.S. Woodsworth. The way this party wanted to solve the economic problems was by democratic socialism, this meant people shared the work and profits. They also wanted to create the unemployment insurance and public work projects to create more jobs. This party became national and elected seven members to Parliament in 1935.

Question: I think the Liberals and the Conservatives seemed to do very little to help people out in the 1930's. Am I right?

Answer: Steven I would have to say you are correct, both parties did very little to help. When William Lyon Mackenzie King was in power in 1926 things seemed to be going quite well. Then came along 1929 when the stock market crashed. Soon afterwards people lost their jobs and there was an unemployment rise, yet King stayed absolutely calm. As things got worse King refused to give a five -cent- piece to any province with a Conservative government. By saying this the Conservatives were able to gain more voters in the federal election in 1930. R.B. Bennett ,leader of the Conservative party failed to keep his promise of giving Canadians jobs. For his five years Bennett did very little to help the Depression. In following years both parties have supplied little support.

Question: Why did bunch of people travel to Ottawa from Vancouver in 1935?

Answer: Dear April; to answer your question I must first talk about the relief camps. Relief camps were created by P.M, R.B. Bennett. the intent for the camps were to take homeless and unemployed men out of cities and towns. Going to one of these camps were completely optional but men that were found homeless, unmarried and unwilling to go to one of the camps were more then likely to be arrested. Workers received food, work clothes and shelter. All of the workers also were given very low pay only receiving 20 cents a day. Bennett believed he was be quite generous but the men in the camp disagreed very deeply. Many men just had enough and in 1935 decided to protest. Their plans were to speak to Bennett and demand higher wages. The protest was called," On to Ottawa Trek ". It all started in Vancouver and trekkers were able to make it all the way to Ottawa but it all ended in Regina Saskatchewan. With their great efforts nothing came out of the protest and things remained the same.