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1. A Time of Transition: Canada After 1945
From Canadian History Portal - HCO
| B. Canada Comes of Age - 1945-1963 → 1. A Time of Transition → 2. Liberal Consensus → 3. The Chief: Canada and Diefenbaker → 4. End of the Golden Age →→ C. New Identities - 1963-1984 |
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From World War to Cold War
As the soldiers returned home victorious in 1945, Canadians looked to the future with both optimism and apprehension. Canadians had made a valiant contribution to the war effort at home and on the front lines, and earned the respect of their allies and the world. 1,086,343 men and women served in the armed forces, 730,000 in the army alone, from a population of 11.5 million. 42,000 died, and over 100,000 suffered casualties. Names such as Dunkirk and Juno Beach would long reverberate in the country’s collective memory. At the same time, the specter of the economic downturn that followed the First World War and the still fresh scars of the Depression remained in the back of everyone’s mind. It would take several years for the country to fully comprehend and adjust to the postwar conditions. The years 1945 to 1950 were a time of transition from which modern Canada would emerge.
Canadians knew that the Second World War had changed their world, but the exact nature of this change remained to be determined. Mere decades before, Canada had been a colony of mother Britain – now, with many of the developed countries in rubble, she was among the most powerful nations in the world. Moreover, in most respects Britain was no longer Canada’s most important ally: this role now belonged to the United States. Canada joined the fledging United Nations (UN), and would participate in a reorganized Commonwealth, and be a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Economically, the effects of the ‘dirty thirties’ had been overcome through wartime production and centralized government control of the economy. Nevertheless, it was initially unclear to what extent the provincial governments would allow the federal government to retain many of these powers in peacetime. Financial prosperity helped create and was sustained by a major upsurge in the Canadian population. Canadian soldiers arrived home with 43,000 war brides and 21,000 children, and this signaled the start of the ‘baby boom,’ which would be at its most prolific in the decade after 1945. After making an extremely valuable contribution to the war effort, most women returned to the home. However, important inroads towards changing the traditional role of women had been made. Reacting to growing families, technological and industrial age, and virtually full employment, patterns of life also began to change. Canadians increasingly moved to cities and suburbs, purchased cars, and bought new products such as televisions and electric fridges at the shopping centres that began to appear.
William Lyon Mackenzie King presided as Prime Minister over the shift from world war to Cold War. Indeed, his last term – from 1945 to 1948 – would prove to be an important transition period, as the changeover to his Liberal successor, Louis St. Laurent, coincided with what has often been called the ‘liberal consensus.’ As St. Laurent assumed the prime ministership, it appeared the country was entering a period of stability and prosperity.
Canada and the Early Cold War
The Cold War followed quickly upon the heels of the Second World War. The Soviet Union had born the brunt of German aggression and had been in invaluable ally, particularly after 1941. However, this had been an alliance of necessity – by the final year of the war, it was apparent that there were, and would be, conflicts of interest. There is considerable debate over the precise start of the Cold War: some historians believe it started as far back as the Russian Revolution of 1917, while others locate it in Second World War conferences such as Yalta and Potsdam and the capture of territory as the Allies moved toward and into Germany, or with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. A convincing argument can also be made for the locus of the Cold War in the 1945-1949 period, including events such as the formation of NATO, the Soviet acquisition of nuclear weapons, or the Berlin Blockade of 1949.
However, the western capitalist countries, including Canada, also played their part in contributing to Cold War tensions. Canada tended to back an “either-or scenario” that forced a belief in either “evil” communism or “good” liberal democracy. Furthermore, the western nations may have failed to take into account legitimate grievances and security concerns of the Soviet Union. As is the case with any historical event, it is important to attempt to see the issue from the point of view of all sides involved.
The Gouzenko Affair
For Canada, the Cold War began in many ways with the Gouzenko Affair. On September 5, 1945, a Soviet cipher clerk named Igor Gouzenko stationed at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa attempted to defect to Canada. He did so with over one hundred top-secret Soviet documents that he hoped would bolster his chances of being accepted as a refugee by the Canadian authorities. But it was only after two days of desperately wandering the streets of Ottawa, and an abortive Soviet attempt to seize him, that Canadian officials took him into custody. The documents Gouzenko had taken indicated a Soviet spy ring was operating in Canada, which was in particular concerned with Canada’s knowledge of nuclear technology. Authorities were at first reluctant to believe his story and evidence, but soon commenced an investigation into the alleged spy ring and traitors, who were rounded up and detained, keeping his defection from the public until February 1946.
- See: Igor Gouzenko, Statement to the RCMP, October 10, 1945
The Gouzenko Affair was a seminal event in a number of ways. It revealed the extent of Russian subterfuge and intentions, exacerbating tensions and contributing to a growing public awareness of the Cold War. The Affair also put Canada in the international spotlight and at the centre of world attention. Out of the increasingly virulent Cold War rhetoric and Gouzenko Affair grew a system of systematic state-sponsored repression aimed at those elements of society associated with the left-wing and communism. The Gouzenko Affair rapidly accelerated witch-hunts which were done largely out of the view of Canadians and supported by the RCMP, unlike the similar McCarthy Trials in the United States, which played out in public and on television. These activities included surveillance, screenings, and purges directed at such groups and organizations as the civil service, the National Film Board, trade unions, and homosexuals. While the Canadian government believed this needed to be done in the name of security, a number of people were unjustly treated or black-listed.
Canada had been somewhat isolationist before the Second World War, but after 1945 played an activist role in international affairs. Canadians hoped to ensure that the United States did not return to an isolationist stance, and Canadian Cold War foreign policy initially focused on multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations and NATO, that guaranteed American involvement while giving Canada a voice in international activities. Canadian influence was at its peak immediately following the Second World War, in part due to the power vacuum left by the war, and during the Cold War Canada would serve as a 'middle power.' The years with St. Laurent as Prime Minister, and Lester B. Person as the Minister (or Secretary of State) for External Affairs, are often labeled the 'golden age' of Canadian diplomacy, which were marked by an approach to external affairs commonly termed 'liberal internationalism.' Although Canada was truly at the height of its international influence during the early Cold War, there is considerable debate about the extent to which this really was a 'golden age' for Canadian diplomacy.
Canadian Diplomacy - The So-Called 'Golden Age'
Pearson had a distinguished career as an historian and diplomat before joining the Liberal Party as Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1948. He would serve in that capacity until 1957, at which point he became leader of the Liberals, and then Prime Minister in 1963.
Along with PM Louis St. Laurent, Pearson was the individual most responsible for the liberal internationalist outlook which has characterized Canada's post-1945 international activities. Canada served as a middle power which could attempt to influence the superpowers, particularly the United States, and work effectively within the various international multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Canada had played an important part in developing.
Liberal internationalism included a commitments to goals such as collective security, peaceful settlement of disputes, decolonization, free trade, technical, scientific and cultural cooperation, and democracy and human rights. Because of Canada’s European heritage and position in North America, and new-found status as a middle power, it felt could offer a unique perspective. There was an implicit moral dimension to Canada's conception of its place it international affairs, namely that the country was specially endowed with moral authority to mediate and offer advice to other nations and institutions. The extent to which this is true is quite debatable, as many historians have recently shown that Canada during the early Cold War often acted pragmatically and to serve its own national interests; sometimes these national interests also happened to be altruistic and further humanitarian concerns.
Pearson and Prime Minister Mackenzie King participated in the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in April 1945. The UN was designed to replace the League of Nations, which was defunct for all intents and purposes. The founders hoped the UN could provide an international organization to facilitate cooperation between governments in areas such as international law, security, economic development, social issues, and human rights.
The Mackenzie King government strongly supported establishing and joining the United Nations, even if it was not on the Security Council and the great powers retained a veto. However, Canada was able to influence the shape of the United Nations to an extent. Furthermore, Canadian John Humphrey was instrumental in establishing the UN Division for Human Rights. He also wrote the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this would be adopted by the United Nations in 1948 (the Canadian government was somewhat reluctant to sign on to this Declaration because there were still some domestic human rights issues, such as the 1948 decision to deprive Japanese-Canadians of the right to vote). 1948 was also the first year that Canada sat on one of the rotating UN Security Council seats.
Aid to underdeveloped - or Third World - countries was an important plank in the liberal internationalist platform. In addition to relief provided by the United Nations, such as the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Committee which saw Canada provide aid to war-torn countries, Canada participated in the Commonwealth's Colombo Plan of 1950, the Internal Monetary Fund, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later known simply as the World Bank). The Colombo Plan was a means to provide assistance to former British colonies in Asia as they gained independence, and this aid would spread over the following decades to Commonwealth countries (former British colonies that had attained at least some measure of independence) in other continents, such as Africa and Latin America. This foreign aid program would later be consolidated with the creation of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1968. The Colombo Plan coincided with a reorganization of the Commonwealth in 1949 as a multiracial organization; although Canada invested much time and energy into the Commonwealth, NATO and the UN would prove to be more important for Cold War concerns.
NATO and Collective Security
The Treaty of Brussels, signed on March 17, 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom, was the precursor to the NATO agreement. It established a military alliance, later to become the Western European Union. However, American, Canadian and other participation was thought necessary to counter the military power of the Soviet Union.
Further talks led to the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. on April 4, 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states, as well as the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Three years later, on February 18, 1952, Greece and Turkey also joined the NATO alliance. The main clause of the treaty was the following:
- The Parties of NATO agreed that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense will assist the Party or Parties being attacked, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Through the work of Canadian diplomat Escott Reid, Canada achieved the inclusion of Article 2, which called for democratic and economic collaboration and development. However, NATO's function would primarily be collective security. NATO provided Canada with a voice in an important multilateral organization and allowed the country to at least partially offset or influence American policies. The Soviet Union was not part of this organization and subsequently formed their own equivalent: the Warsaw Pact.
Resource: North Atlantic (NATO) Treaty
Newfoundland and Confederation
The result was inconclusive, with 44.6% supporting the restoration of dominion status, 41.1% for confederation with Canada, and 14.3% for continuing the Commission of Government. Between the first and second referendums, rumours had it that Catholic bishops were using their religious influence to alter the outcome of the votes. The Orange Order was incensed and called on all its members to vote for Confederation, as the Catholics voted for responsible government. The Protestants of Newfoundland outnumbered the Catholics at a ratio of 2:1. This was believed to have greatly influenced the outcome of a second referendum, which took place on July 22, 1948, and asked Newfoundlanders to choose between confederation and dominion status. The Confederation option narrowly won, 52% to 48%, and Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada on March 31, 1949. Smallwood was sworn in as the province's first premier, although a strong current of public opinion in the province would henceforth question the wisdom of joining Canada. Some even agitated for the reversion to independence.
The Beginning of the Welfare State
Canada's population in 1945 stood at 12 million. By the Centennial in 1967, 20 million people populated the country. When Canadians went to the polls to vote in the 1945 election, they could not have predicted this population explosion, and the economic prosperity and social measures that would come were only dreams. In that election, William Lyon Mackenzie King and the Liberals achieved victory over the newly renamed Progressive Conservatives. In doing so, King cemented his status as the longest serving prime minister in the country's history.
The years before 1945, particularly the experiences of the Depression and war, had resulted in Canadians calling for reforms to improve their quality of life. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, churches, private philanthropic organizations, farm organizations, labour unions and one political party - the CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation), renamed the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961 - campaigned for more and better social welfare assistance. In 1935, Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett promised, in a last-ditch effort to win re-election, a "New Deal" similar to the plan of American President Franklin Roosevelt, but including unemployment insurance. Bennett lost and Mackenzie King and the Liberals moved cautiously and slowly to introduce social welfare legislation. In 1940 King introduced the Unemployment Insurance Commission (UIC) Fund to provide money for workers temporarily out of work. The fund was supported by compulsory contributions from employers and employees. Because of almost full employment during the war years and into the 1950s very little was actually paid out and government invested the funds in bonds and securities to help pay for the war.
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The Liberals introduced another piece of social legislation in 1944: the National Housing Act. It created the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which was designed to promote construction of new houses, renovate and modernize existing housing, and to create work in postwar Canada. After the war Canadians wanted more out of life. They wanted sturdy homes with running water, indoor plumbing, central heating, electricity and a yard for their growing children to play in. This demand created systematically planned and developed communities on the fringes of the cities – the suburbs. While some public housing such as Regent Park in Toronto, completed in 1947 with over 1,200 families, were a definite success. Others, such as Ville Jacques Cartier in Montreal and Bridgeview in British Columbia, were disasters. They were little more than shantytowns on the urban fringe. Many lacked water or sewage, and the areas were without garbage collection, or street lighting. Before the fight against the Axis powers had ended, a federal committee on Post-War Reconstruction was created. In 1943 the King government had frozen wages at the 1926-29 level in an effort to control wartime inflation. When it proved difficult for families to cover their expenses, even with full-time employment, the government opted for allowance payments to ease the suffering. The Committee made numerous recommendations including a family allowance. The family allowance, popularly known as the “baby bonus”, provided $5 to $8 for every child in Canada under the age of 15. Although the war ended in 1945 and the “Baby Bonus” came into effect July of the same year, the family allowance payments carried on and has become an important program om Canada’s social support system. It was available to everyone regardless of income. One of the first orders of business after the conclusion of the war was the reintegration of Canadian military personnel. A new Department of Veterans Affairs had been created in 1944, and the Veterans' Charter of 1944 provided funds, to the tune of over $700 million, to finance assist veterans returning to civilian life. A 1942 law required employers to rehire veterans at their former jobs, and funding to allow former soldiers to attend college or university. Meanwhile, a mortgage assistance program and the Veterans' Land Act were set up, with the latter helping demobilized soldiers establish farms. Returning home with the soldiers were a number of new Canadians: approximately 45,000 war brides and 22,000 children. The majority were British, although some came from other European countries. While many became enthusiastic Canadians, the transition to a new land and culture often proved difficult. Likewise, many Canadian soldiers had trouble readjusting to civilian life. For years, virtually ever moment of their waking existence had been controlled and regimented. They were told what to do and when to do it. Now they had all the freedom in the world, and places and people they knew back home had changed or left. It must have been a strange adjustment for many of them. Nevertheless, many were more than willing to follow the new trends in Canadian domestic life: urbanization and the spread of suburbs, new technologies, and a burgeoning consumer culture. |
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A New Immigration Boom
In addition to immigration, the largest number of new Canadians came from within the country's borders. The combination of soldiers returning home, coupled with rosy economic prospects for the first time in decades, led to the so-called 'baby boom.' In the 10-15 years after 1945, Canada's birthrate was the highest it had ever been. Moreover, it was for a while the highest of the world's industrialized nations.
The Rationale for Emigration to Canada
The massive wave of post-war immigration to Canada was in some ways reminiscent of the immigration boom at the turn of the century under Wilfrid Laurier. This post-WWII spike had the same positive impacts on Canada, both social and economically. But while the earlier group of immigrants had come due to a variety of push and pulls factors, one of the major inducements was the free land offered by Laurier’s Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton. Such an incentive was not available in the years following the Second World War. Instead, the newcomers saw Canada as a haven to the political and economic turmoil of a post-war Europe.
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Immigration to Canada by Region of Origin
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The overwhelming majority of the immigrants who first came to Canada after the end of the War came from war-ravaged Europe. Almost one and a half million immigrants, refugees, displaced persons, war brides, individuals, and families left Europe for the safe haven of Canada. Some were escaping from Soviet crackdowns in Eastern European countries such as East Germany and Hungary, while many more were simply seeking a better life as they saw little future in the economic dislocation of a war ravaged Europe. Initially, over half of the immigrants originated from the British Isles and Western Europe. However, a significant change in the face of the immigration picture began to appear a few years later as sizable numbers of immigrants came from southern and Eastern Europe. That face of immigration would change further in the second decade after the War as immigrants from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean began arriving in Canada. |
One specific location played a critical role in the early years of post-war immigration. Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia was the Canadian equivalent to the earlier role played by Ellis Island in American history. Pier 21 was the first point of entry for thousands of refugees, displaced persons, and immigrants landing in Canada by ship. It was arguably the single busiest building in all of Canada. For example, in 1951, close to 100 000 new Canadians passed through its doors.
Some of those new Canadians remained in Halifax or traveled a little to settle ultimately in the Maritimes. However, for the great majority of the new arrivals, Pier 21 and the immediate environs was only a brief resting point. Most immediately boarded trains to finally take up residence in major cities, often with relatives or friends. Still others journeyed further to work in the mines of northern Quebec or Ontario and others still went further, to ultimately become farmers on the Canadian Prairie.
They had an immense impact on Canada. They all brought their skills and talents and wove them into the economy. Tens of thousands assisted the economy as workers and as consumers. They also brought with them their unique values and beliefs and in the process greatly added to the diversity of the cultural landscape. In short, they laid the basis for a truly multicultural Canada. They all faced, individually and collectively, problems of acceptance and integration but each immigrant, in his or her own way, ultimately made a new home in Canada. They had to learn the custom, find accommodation, seek employment, send their children to different schools, and adapt to different customs and practices.
Two years following the ending of war, the Canadian government passed the Canadian Citizenship Act. British subjects now automatically became Canadian citizens. Also under the terms of the new law, Canadians could now sponsor relatives from their countries of origin to emigrate to Canada, something that they were formerly prohibited from doing.
The population of Canada rose by almost fifty percent in the fifteen years after the end of World War Two, from about 12 million to almost eighteen million. (See population table below.)
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Immigration by Year
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Certainly, the two million immigrants helped raise the overall population of the country. However, equally, if not more important, was the ‘postwar baby boom.’ In the years after 1945, the birth rate in Canada rose steadily, reaching almost half a million babies born in 1959. A number of factors accounted for this tremendous increase. Returning veterans benefited from government programs that encouraged them to go to school, buy houses, and to get married and to begin raising families. The postwar economic prosperity coupled with rising optimism further intensified the trend. Psychologically and emotionally, many Canadians simply wanted a return to normality, and arguably the best manifestation was buying a house and starting a family. The thousands of war brides added to the overall trend. This baby boom generation had a major impact. It stimulated an already expanding economy. It led to the rise of suburbia as thousands of new families choose to locate away from bustling downtown cores. The country was transformed in a youth-centred society as both businesses and governments sought to address this new demographic. The boom caused the sudden construction of hundreds of new schools and the hiring of thousands of new teachers. As the ‘boomers’ aged, they continued to impact economic and political decision-makers because with their numbers they became the focus of attention.
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Federalism
Federalism - the relationship between the federal and provincial governments and their corresponding areas of power and authority - had become more centralized and strengthened during the war, and would continue to do so in the following decades. The Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial relations, which was established in 1937 and provided its report in 1940, recommended that taxation powers be centralized to the federal government. The necessity of paying for the war eventually caused the provinces, who were reluctant to give up their authority in this area, to agree.
While taxation powers remained in the hands of the federal government to a large degree after the war, Ottawa's proposal to establish a comprehensive welfare state fell through because provincial autonomists were not willing to cede enough of their powers. Although an opportunity to create a comprehensive welfare state in one large stroke had not been successful, socially progressive measures would continue to develop in a piecemeal fashion.
Sidelight: The Birth of Canadian Citizenship Other important steps were taken between 1945 and 1950. In June 1946, the Canadian Citizenship Act received Royal Assent. Previously, there was no such thing in law as a Canadian citizen. Canadian nationals were legally defined as British subjects, both in Canada and abroad. Additionally, the Act improved the status of women, as a female's citizenship was no longer linked to her husband.  The law that gave legal recognition to the term "Canadian citizen" originated with Liberal Cabinet Minister Paul Martin Sr.. In 1945, while the Second World War was still raging, he was visiting a military cemetery in Dieppe, France, when he noted the variety of nationalities represented by Canadian soldiers in the names on the wooden crosses. As he later wrote, “Nothing has since epitomized the concept of our nation more poignantly for me than that cemetery. Of whatever origin, these men were all Canadians.” The Immigration Act of 1910, the Naturalization Act of 1914 and the Canadian Nationals Act of 1921 had provided a definition of "Canadian nationals," which Canada needed for participation in the League of Nations and membership in the International Court of Justice, but as Martin noted in Parliament, there was unending confusion and embarrassment. Married women did not have full authority over their national status. Along with minors, lunatics and idiots "under a disability," they could not become naturalized or control their national status as independent persons, except in very special circumstances. Martin resolved to bring in a law defining what constituted a Canadian, and on October 22, 1945, Martin spoke to his Canadian Citizenship Act in the House of Commons:  Our "new Canadians" bring to this country much that is rich and good, and in Canada they find a new way of life and new hope for the future. They should all be made to feel that they, like the rest of us, are Canadians, citizens of a great country, guardians of proud traditions and trustees of all that is best in life for generations of Canadians yet to be. For the national unity of Canada and for the future and greatness of this country it is felt to be of utmost importance that all of us, new Canadians or old, have a consciousness of a common purpose and common interests as Canadians; that all of us are able to say with pride and say with meaning: "I am a Canadian citizen." The Canadian Citizenship Act, enacted on June 27, 1946, came into force on January 1, 1947. It conferred a common Canadian citizenship on all Canadians, whether or not they had been born in Canada. Canadian citizenship, however, was deemed a privilege to be granted only to those considered qualified. Among the changes introduced by the new Act were the following: 
With this revolutionary law Canada became the first Commonwealth country to create its own class of citizenship separate from that of Great Britain. Henceforth Canadian citizenship could be acquired by immigrants who had been naturalized in Canada, non-Canadian British subjects who had lived in Canada for five or more years, and non-Canadian women who had married Canadian citizens and who had come to live in Canada. At a cermony of January 3, 1947 in the Supreme Court of Canada, Chief Justice Thibaudeau Rinfret presented 26 individuals with the first Canadian citizenship certificates. Prime Minister Mackenzie King received certificate 0001. Photographer Yousuf Karsh, born in Armenia, also received his citizenship. RESOURCE: Read Mackenzie King's Speech at the Supreme Court Ceremony on January 3. |
In addition to the Citizenship Act, the Supreme Court of Canada replaced the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council - which required Britain to make judicial decisions - as Canada's highest court of appeal in 1949. That same year, non-status Indians were granted the right to vote, and the next year the Inuit gained the franchise.
A New Economy
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The Boom in Auto Sales The spread of the automobile may be the most tangible symbol of a cultural and economic watershed in Canada: between 1945 and 1955, Canadians bought 3.5 million cars, an enormous increase. The Second World War represented a major turning point in the Canadian economy. Considering the economic downturn that had followed the First World War, and the recent trauma of the Depression, Canadians were understandably wary. However, the war had provided a needed impetus, not only in terms of jump-starting the economy, but in creating and diversifying manufacturing and industry. Steps taken to assist the war effort would prove beneficial afterward, such as the growth of Crown corporations (state-controlled companies or enterprises) during the war years.  Crown Corporations These "Crowns" included Trans-Canada Airlines, Polymer Corporation at Sarnia, and Eldorado Nuclear at Port Hope. The latter was symbolic of Canadian involvement in scientific and technological innovation. Some government controlled industries continued to operate after 1945, while others were sold on the condition that they remained operational. The wartime conditions had also centralized economic planning in the hands of the federal government. In particular, the reigns fell to C.D. Howe, who headed the new Department of Reconstruction, and authored a White Paper on postwar reconstruction. Gross National Product Canada prospered in the postwar period: Canada's Gross National Product (GNP) jumped from $11.8 billion in 1945 to $18.4 billion in 1950. However, the years up to 1950 were nonetheless a time of adjustment and a period when it wasn't apparent that financial stability would be permanent. Government economic planning for reconstruction combined an expansion of the money supply and government deficits in times of unemployment. This followed Keynesian economic theory, which called for a mixed economy of private enterprise and government intervention. At the end of the war, Canada's debt was higher than its GNP, and the immediate post-conflict period saw production and exports decrease while inflation soared. However, government tax incentives to encourage production and spending, as well as government spending in areas such as social welfare and defence, stoked the economy. GATT  Trade liberalization also became an important part of Canada's Cold War policies. However, despite increased trade liberalization, in the late 1940s imports rose faster than exports, particularly goods brought in from America. Foreign capital was increasingly invested in Canada, particularly American. Economic integration between Canada and the U.S.A. increased (although a free-trade agreement between the two nations fell through) and Canada signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947. The purpose of the GATT was to reduce trade barriers. |
Despite these measures, the Canadian economy was still in flux in the last half of the 1940s: inflation rates rose, there were exchange crises, and trade rates fluctuated. At times the government responded with measures such as restrictions on American imports. Nevertheless, by the mid-point of the century economic stability seemed to have arrived and optimism reigned.
The Rise of Big Labour
The Ford and Stelco Strikes
A number of sensational strikes caught the attention of the public. In 1945, the strike by workers at the Ford Motor Company in Windsor resulted in the Rand Formula. This required that that once a union had been established, employees were required to pay union fees in order to receive union benefits, even if they did not want to join the union.
Women in the Workforce
After the Second World War, most women workers, especially married women, left the paid work force. Nonetheless, women who remained employed still had to perform all the domestic and family chores. Cultural stereotypes reinforced the “traditional” role of women, and most women who retained jobs were nurses, sales personnel and clerks. Only a handful were professionals. Slowly, however, female participation in the work force increased.
Shopping Centre Culture
Due to high employment rates, Canadians tended to have more cash in hand and more options for spending it. The first shopping centres and malls appeared soon after 1945 and offered a variety of new products that the average Canadian could often afford. These products, such as vacuums and refrigerators, could fill the new types of homes that were popping up in recently formed suburbs around major cities. However, not all people benefited to the same extent from the new economic situation. Those with disabilities, for example, did not fare as well, and those of non-white origins still faced discrimination.
| 1. Time of Transition - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| B. Canada Comes of Age - 1945-1963 → 1. A Time of Transition → 2. Liberal Consensus → 3. The Chief: Canada and Diefenbaker → 4. End of the Golden Age →→ C. New Identities - 1963-1984 |
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