The Great Depression

    

          When the depression hit Canada, the quality of life changed drastically for many Canadians. Children went hungry, families were homeless, and many lives were lost. This was also the case even with wealthy families. Some lost their cars, homes, and investments.

           This was due to the fact that many of Canadians at the time were playing with the stock market. They would buy and then sell constantly which would “over-inflate” the stocks causing them to be said to be worth more than they really were. On October 2, 1929, the stock market had a major crash. This caused many Canadians to lose a lot of what they had because most of them had been using large amounts of their money thinking that they would be making more money, but that is not how it turned out to be.

          PM Mackenzie King wanted to give the citizens a sense of hope. I think that there was nothing he could really do to stop it except for wait until it was over. If he has made any sort of promise to the people, he would not have been able to keep it. This would cause even more problems (riots, violence, etc.). He wanted to keep the people as calm as possible. After all, what would be the difference between panicking and staying calm? There’s nothing they could do to stop it, so why not spend time persevering through it instead of causing even more harm trying to get  the government to try and stop it? There was not much the government could do in that predicament; after all, they were broke too.

        The Great depression was yet another tragedy in the book of Canadian history. It claimed many lives and made a brutal mark in the history of Canada.