Social Change During the 1920s

Political Change

Robert Borden Conservative Prime Minister who

helped Canada become independent from Britain

Political Change

Arthur Meighen Helped write the Military Service bill

Conscription

Replaced Borden when he resigned

Workers, farmers, immigrants, and Quebecers did not like him much…

Political Change

William Mackenzie King Known as a social reformer who

supported labour groups AND free trade

Believed in workers compensation and E.I.

Prohibition

Between 1915 and 1917, every province except Quebec outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol

In USA: prohibition from 1920-1933 federally

In Canada: most gave up by mid-1920s

Created wave of crime, laws were hard to enforce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh1TuqCYoL4

Prohibition

Samuel Bronfman & Seagram Founded the Canada Pure Drug

Company so that he could import alcohol from Europe for “medicinal purposes” (it was smuggled into USA)

Made millions. Became legitimate company after prohibition and their empire still exists today (sports teams, charity foundations, real estate, etc.)

Flappers/Jazz

G. Marconi Established the first radio

station in Canada (Montreal)

Flappers/Jazz

Jazz was the “hot new music” that defined the Roaring Twenties Created by African-American

musicians in Louisiana

Popular on radio, gramophone recordings, and live bands

Flappers/Jazz

Dance crazes of the new music:Charleston, Black Bottom, Lindy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0

Flappers/Jazz

FlappersFashionable young women who defied old

conventions of proper “feminine” behavior

Danced at nightclubs

Wore beaded dresses that went only to the knee!

Cut hair in to “boyish” bobs

Smoked in public, drank alcohol AND drove their own cars

Immigration

Immigration Act of 1919oPreferred list of nationalities

= white English-speaking Britons/Americans

= northern Europeans

oBottom of the list= Asians, Blacks, Gypsies, Jews

Immigration

Railway Agreement in 1925oAllowed railway companies to recruit workers

from many undesirable countriesoChinese and Black Americans were NOT

allowedoVery few Japanese were allowed, 150 per year

Residential Schools

Wanted Native peoples assimilated in to white culture

Outlawed Native language, culture, and traditions like the potlatch

Underfunded schools ran by church leaders

Known for poor conditions (diet, sanitation, healthcare)

Many children physically and sexually abused

Residential Schools

Long-lasting generational effects: Alcoholism

Molesting of own family members

Breakdown of the family

Loss of language & culture

Women & The Vote

Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney & the “Famous Five”Took the “Persons Case” all the

way to the Supreme Court and the British Privy Council in London to allow women to hold positions in an appointed office (public) example: to be a senator

Mass Consumption

= a shopping, consumer society

Mass Media:Advertisements,

catalogues, radio, billboards, magazines

Mass Consumption

Eaton’sWas a catalogue company

like Sears is todayCould buy time-saving

items like washing machines and toasters

Mass Consumption

AutomobilesMore people owned

vehicles and demanded better roadways

Tourism increased greatlyProvided jobs

Mass Consumption

RadioSeen as American cultural

invasion, but many Canadians liked the music, comedy, soap operas, and preaching

Group of Seven/Emily Carr

Well known artists for their style of Canadian Identity and landscapes

Tom ThomsonA commercial artist who had a group of friends whose new styles of painting the Canadian landscape inspired other artists like Emily Carr