Canadahistory.com		Canadahistory.com

Prehistory | 2 Worlds Meet | New France | England Arrives | Clash of Empires | Revolution | British America | Reform/Revolt | Responsible Government | Confederation | Nation Building | Laurier | The Great War | Roaring 20's | Great Depression | WWII | The Peace | Cold War | Trudeau | PC's in Power | Modern Canada

A New Leader | Maritimes Rights Movement | King Byng Affair | The Economy Booms | A New Culture | Stocks

At the end of the First World War Canada transitioned from a war based full production economy to a peacetime balanced supply and demand economy. This brought about a slump in the economy which lasted for a short period while things returned to normal. Business activity then began to pick up and the promises of the Great War for real democracy, fair wages, social justice and change in favour of the majority of the people were voiced. Labour movements sprung up, farmers coops were created and a general shift from a rural based economy to an urban based one began. Canada's business and economic trends followed those of the U.S. and a general economic boom began to pickup speed as the 20's progressed. This was not an even or fair boom as some parts of the country did not enjoy or reap the benefits of the growth. The Federal government began to pull out of the large war time programs and by default left the general economy to business. As prosperity increased and no levels of government saw fit to regulate the private sector to intensely, a belief that business knew best became pervasive through the country.

Canada Gross National Product

 

By 1928 the booming U.S. economy was effecting the growth of Canadian business in a geographic manner. The demand for pulp and minerals was encouraging Canadian workers to move into the Northern forests and onto the Canadian shield which was a major source of nickel, copper, silver, lead, zinc and gold. Almost 300 million dollars worth of metals came out of these Northern mines in 1928 and nearly twice that amount was generated by the pulp and paper product flowing from the great Canadian forests.

Oil had not been found or discovered in any appreciable amount but hydroelectric power was beginning it's rapid expansion as a crucial source of power for business and the population. The farms were beginning to use larger and more efficient types of machinery to do the hard labour of planting and harvesting and factories in the cities were starting to grow and multiply.

The per-capita income in Canada in 1928 was $500 dollars and in British Columbia it was almost $600 which meant that a family with 2 children had an annual income of over $2000 which provided for a very comfortable living in the 20's.

Agriculture boomed on the back of the wheat sector. With Russian chaos under Stalin actually causing starvation in some area of the Soviet Union, Canadian wheat exports exploded. By 1928 Canada harvested 567,000,000 bushels of wheat and sold that crop for about $1.60 a bushel. Canada had become the largest wheat exporter in the world. In 1911 there were no more then 25,000 cars in the country but by 1928 at least 1 of every two families had a car and the infant Canadian car manufacturing industry had been swallowed whole by the big three American companies, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler who were making the cars in Canada and  became the fourth largest manufacturing industry in Canada.

This boom period was to come to an abrupt end in October of 1929 when the stock markets in Canada, the U.S. and several other countries in the collapse and the Great Depression began.