Defence;ess Prairies

4 Pages 1074 Words

The conception of the era known as the “Dirty Thirties” was a time of harsh poverty and despair within Canada. One of the areas most affected during this period was the Canadian prairie. Armed with three major impediments in particular, the 1930’s caused severe devastation and depression to the farming communities within Canada. The crash of the stock markets, insect plagues and Mother Nature were all bitter enemies to the prairie farmers during this timeframe. Despite being recognized as one of the major producers of grain in the world, the prairie’s eventually adhered to their vulnerability and the threat of depression became a reality.
It is unknown exactly when the depression in Canada began, but many associate its inauguration with October 29, 1929. That day, also known as “Black Tuesday” , was the day the stock markets in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and the grain trade in Winnipeg came to a crashing end. The failed markets not only hampered Canadians but they also took their toll on the rest of the world. In addition to the Canadian “Black Tuesday” another infamous day in history known as “Black Thursday” was the day the American markets began their downward spiral. This crash was devastating to Canadian farmers as the United States government began implementing tariffs to protect their own farmers and industries. Those tariffs were imposed to prevent import sales of wheat and other grains from neighboring countries. Thus leaving Canadian farmers stranded with an increasing surplus of grains and other crops.
Another major reason resulting in the decline of Americans buying the Canadian wheat was a crucial error in their expectation of crop prices. The Americans believed that the prices would continue to rise so in turn they began producing mass quantities of grain. Eventually, the market bottomed out and sales collapsed leaving the American farming industry with an intense surplus of wheat. This was ...