Notes on the early 1900s - (click to download)

The Laurier Era 1896-1911

· Wilfrid Laurier

· first French Canadian Prime Minister of Canada

· Catholic

· won elections in 1896 and 1900

· predicted the Twentieth Century would be the century of Canada

· Life in 1900

· very different in many ways than today

· health

· average life expectancy was 48

· tuberculosis and pneumonia top killers,

· followed by bronchitis and intestinal disorders

· no antibiotics

· high childhood death rate

· dyphtheria

· smallpox

· measles

· scarlet fever

· typhoid fever

· marriage meant to last a lifetime

· divorce required Act of Parliament

· only 19 took place in all Canada in 1901

· women and children considered property of husband

· selling birth control illegal, but illegal devices available

· morals and manners (mainly upper class)

· children seen and not heard

· children appeared as miniature adults

· young males and females needed a chaperone to meet

· an adult present at all times

· no physical contact

· many ornaments and clutter

· fringes and frills on women’s fashions

· bathing costumes for men and women revealed little

· men wore hats according to their position in life

· ladies were polite in language

· books on etiquette were best sellers

· church was attended

· loyalty to the crown

· all believed in virtue, honour and duty

· lower classes

· expected to behave in same way as much as possible

· hard working

· typical work week 60 hours

· natural resource based jobs

· miners

· loggers

· fishers

· most still lived on farms

· changes

· bicycle provided more mobility; less parental control

· immigration brought new customs and beliefs

· increased value of schooling

· much structure

· boys and girls sat separately

· teacher gave the strap

· cities grew (see below)

· ideas about social reform

· for aboriginal people

· westward expansion of settlement threatened lifestyle

· assimilation of aboriginal people into Canadian culture

· forced to attend church run residential schools far from home

· prohibited from speaking own language

· suffered psychological damage

· lost their native culture and language

· Indian Act gave government regulatory powers

· status and non-status Indians

· no citizenship

· Period of Immigration to west

· Canada needed increased population beyond rate of birth

· The west was rich in resources

· problems in eastern Europe led to many people wanting to leave

· high taxes

· forced military service

· over crowding

· overpopulation

· crowding

· religious persecution

· Western Canada was attractive as a destination

· promotion of “The Last Best West” by government

· Clifford Sifton

· Minister of Interior

· “I think a stalwart peasant in a sheep-skin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half-dozen children, is good quality”.

· hired recruiters

· people attracted by easily available land

· work attracted others

· eastern Europeans favoured

· Poles

· Ukrainians

· Romanians

· Hungarians

· Italians

· Chinese tolerated or feared

· had to pay Head Tax

· first $100

· raised to $500

· relegated to jobs Whites did not want

· didn’t have right to vote

· denied access to professional careers

· other Asians

· Continuous Journey Law

· immigrants had to come directly to Canada

· no such shipping routes

· Komagata Maru

· immigrants from India

· test case 1914

· denied access to Vancouver

· had to be healthy to be accepted

· African-Americans considered unable to tolerate Canadian climate

· families could be separated

· experienced hardship to come

· long ocean crossing

· steerage passengers

· hot, crowded compartments below water level

· inspection in port

· long railway journey

· drafty coaches with wooden benches

· long line-ups to get land allocation

· long distance to homestead by wagon, sleigh or foot

· experienced hardships not anticipated

· advertisements exaggerated conditions in positive manner

· reality of weather and living conditions much more harsh

· blizzards

· dust storms

· grasshoppers

· experienced discrimination and persecution

· language, appearance and customs different

· needed money to buy supplies

· men worked for others

· required to build a home and cultivate land within three years

· City Life

· growth of cities, or urbanization

· movement of rural population to cities

· established rural families

· job opportunities

· new immigrants

· Jewish

· Italians

· lonely homesteaders

· wealth gap

· rich got richer

· mansions

· “modern” comforts

· electricity

· central heating

· running water

· servants

· poor got poorer

· slums

· shacks and tenements

· few comforts

· kerosene lamps

· wood stoves

· backyard pump

· bad water

· inadequate toilet facilities

· disease

· high death rate

· worked for the wealthy: factory owners

· trend of industrialization

· manufacturing jobs

· farm machinery

· luxury items

· food

· clothing

· tools

· locomotives

· automobiles

· electric streetcars

· trend to corporations

· small businesses couldn’t keep up with demand

· large companies could afford heavy equipment

· greater and faster production

· higher profit

· could out compete small business

· monopolies

· protected by government

· high tariffs

· department stores

· replaced smaller specialty stores

· catalogue shopping

· employed many workers

· sweat shops

· low pay, by the piece

· no security

· bad working conditions

· poor ventilation

· no breaks

· child labour

· Cultural Life

· Literature

· nostalgia for rural life

· “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy M. Montgomery

· “The Man from Glengarry” by Ralph Conner

· nation’s leading action novelist

· Art

· Homer Watson

· farm scenes and landscapes

· Theatre Performance

· in small towns and cities all across Canada

· singers

· musicians

· monologists

· comedians

· reciters

· actors

· poetry reading

· Pauline Johnson

· Mohawk poetess

· read on-stage

· Motion Pictures

· mainly after 1911

· Special theatres

· silent films

· Other Entertainment

· Recordings

· Gramophone

· cylinders

· discs

· a wide variety of music

· Sports

· mainly an interest of the wealthy at first, but later the common man

· Hockey

· National Hockey League started 1917

· rinks usually outdoors

· smaller than today

· no blue lines

· no forward passes

· very little equipment

· Baseball

· main summer sport

· Canadian Baseball Association

· teams mainly near USA in SW Ontario

· Rugby football

· a university sport

· Lacrosse

· very popular

· Basketball

· invented by a Canadian in US in 1891

· played in Canada before 1900

· a YMCA sport

· Social Reform

· aid to mostly urban poor

· church groups

· improve living and working conditions

· city governments

· urban planning

· better transportation

· not really improvements for the poor

· Temperance Movement

· alcohol considered by some to be root of all evil

· abuse of children

· abuse of women

· poverty of families

· women urged temperance

· refusing to drink alcohol

· organization of middle-class women

· Women’s Christian Temperance Union

· met in Temperance Halls

· asked drinkers to “Take The Pledge”

· petitioned government to bring in Prohibition

· a ban on alcohol

· Women’s Rights Movement

· until 1917

· “No woman, idiot, lunatic, or criminal shall vote”

· Suffragists campaigned for women’s suffrage

· right of women to vote

· right of married women to own property

· right of married women not to be considered husband’s property

· belief that world would be better if women had more say

· organized petitions, pamphlets and parades

· mock parliamentary debate: should men have the vote

· Workplace Reform

· individual unskilled factory workers could do little about working conditions in “sweatshops”

· low pay

· no benefits

· no sick leave

· no health benefits

· no workers compensation for injury

· long hours

· no job security

· easy to replace them with other workers

· harsh conditions

· forbidden to talk

· forbidden to be late

· forbidden to leave their post

· fines, dismissals, physical abuse

· required to eat meals at their post

· no safety devices

· individual unskilled migrant labourers

· called blanketstiffs

· workers who carried belongings from job to job in a blanket roll

· loggers

· miners

· railway workers

· farming harvesters

· had some support from Workers of the World

· an American Union

· known as the Wobblies

· preached a workers’ revolution

· organized strikes

· skilled workers had more options

· threaten to strike

· stop working

· threatens employers profits

· trade unions formed

· collective negotiations for

· better pay

· shorter hours

· influenced government to pass laws improving working conditions

· 1907 Lord’s Day Act gave Sunday off

· 1908 minimum working age (14) set in Ontario

· employers opposed to unions

· police and military called in to break up protests

· strikes ended bitterly

· men often had to agree to lower pay if they wanted their jobs back

· French English Relations

· French Canadian concerns

· Immigration changing make-up of Canadian population

· reducing chance of French influence in western Canada

· Manitoba Schools Question

· Catholic school system important to French Canadians

· maintain language and culture

· B.N.A. Act (1867) had guaranteed right to religious schools in all provinces

· Federal government responsible to ensure

· Manitoba became province in 1870

· population half French

· Manitoba in 1890

· majority English-speaking

· provincial government removed support for church-run schools

· B.N.A. Act gave education rights to provinces

· provincial government removed French as an official language

· French-speaking population felt minority rights violated

· responsibility of Federal government

· appealed case through courts

· Federal government refused to take a stand against province

· Prime Minister Laurier proposed solution

· “the sunny way”

· schools with 10 or more non-English-speaking children could offer French

· French bitter

· North-West Schools Question

· Saskatchewan and Alberta became provinces in 1905

· Laurier suggested support for both French and English Schools

· Sifton suggested English only system

· assimilate immigrants

· English-only system adopted

· French Canadians in Quebec upset

· Henri Bourassa suggested no reason for Quebec to stay in Canada

· founding of a number of organizations dedicated to French Canadian nationalism

· Technological change

· hydro-electric power

· generators constructed at Niagara Falls

· private companies

· move for public ownership

· Adam Beck a supporter

· Hydro-electric Power Commission established in 1906

· regulated any private power generation

· railway expansion

· resentment against monopoly of Canadian Pacific railway

· western farmers demanded new lines

· Canadian Northern Railway started by Mackenzie and Mann

· bought up small Manitoba line

· offered better service than CPR

· expanded into Ontario and Saskatchewan and Alberta

· used provincial grants

· Grand Trunk Railway in Eastern Canada

· asked for federal grants to build to Pacific

· Laurier supported idea

· thousands of kilometres of railway built

· now three lines to the Pacific

· Canadian Pacific

· Grand Trunk Pacific- National Transcontinental

· Canadian Northern

· Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk amalgamated in 1919 as Canadian National Railway

· Canada’s Position in the Empire

· British Empire

· many colonies

· Dominion of Canada (not completely independent)

· couldn’t make foreign policy decisions

· Dominion of Australia (not completely independent)

· Hong Kong

· British India

· British Guiana

· New Zealand

· South Africa

· British East Africa

· Singapore

· Nigeria

· Borneo

· Gold Coast

· overseas territories important for

· economy

· defense

· Imperialists in Canada

· proud to be part of Empire

· regarded themselves foremost as British subjects

· felt Canada should provide taxes and troops to Britain

· Nationalists in Canada

· believed Canada should be independent of Britain

· mainly French Canadians

· Continentalists in Canada

· argued Canada should join United States

· more profitable for Canada

· Boer War

· 1899

· Laurier asked to support British troops in South Africa against Boers

· Dutch settlers’ descendants refused British rule

· Laurier caught between English Canadians and French Canadians

· English Canadians supported sending troops

· responsibility to support the Empire

· French Canadians opposed sending troops

· suspicious of Britain and Empire

· sympathized with Boers

· similar situation as French Canadians in British colony

· didn’t want involvement in distant war

· resentful of Manitoba Schools Question decision

· Laurier decided on compromise

· Canada would not commit an official force

· Government would pay for equipment and passage of 1000 volunteers

· no commitment for future involvement

· total of 7000 volunteers went to South Africa

· Laurier’s compromise pleased nobody

· English Canadians felt government hadn’t done enough

· condemned French Canadians as traitors

· French Canadians believed government had betrayed them

· offended no parliamentary debate

· three days of violence on streets of Montreal

· Militia called out to regain order

· Naval Issue

· After Boer war ended in 1901

· concern in Britain over growth of Germany

· Britain must retain naval superiority

· Britain strengthened fleet with big-gun battleships

· H.M.S. Dreadnought

· naval arms race

· Britain asked Dominions to contribute to cost of ships

· New Zealand agreed

· Laurier refused direct cash contribution

· proposed compromise

· Naval Services Bill

· Canada to establish navy

· Canadian command

· British control in war

· creates Royal Canadian Navy

· ships never built

· 2 cruisers from Britain to Canada

· one on east coast

· one on west coast

· storm of controversy

· Imperialists said not enough

· tin pot navy

· Fr. Canadians said too far

· draw Canada into war

· argued against Laurier in next election

· Borden won

· pro Britain

· Alaska Boundary Dispute

· long-standing disagreement

· Klondike Gold Rush 1896n made issue more important

· 1903 U.S.A. and Britain decided on boundary

· Canada disagreed with decision and Britain

· Laurier convinced Canada needs bigger say in foreign policy

· made small moves toward independence

· 1908 Royal Canadian Mint strikes first coins

· 1909 formation of Dept. of External Affairs

· Reciprocity Issue

· free trade proposed with U.S.A.

· Laurier thought free trade would be popular

· powerful feelings among Canadians

· contrary to Macdonald’s National Policy

· protection for Canadian goods and businesses

· expansion of Canadian manufacturing

· farmers supported free trade

· out west

· down east

· businessmen in Ontario and Quebec opposed free trade

· opposition to free trade by railway companies

· opposition to free trade by Imperialists

· thought it was disloyal to Britain

· opposition by Conservative Party

· would not let idea through parliament

· election was called by Laurier on reciprocity issue

· Laurier (L) defeated by Robert Borden (C)

· defeated in Quebec over Naval Bill

· defeated in Quebec and Ontario by reciprocity issue

· Canada had reaffirmed ties with Britain and the Empire