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2. Canada in the Roaring Twenties
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The Decades of the 1920s and 1930s
However, even before the decade of the twenties began, three significant events happened in Canada. The first was the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic, the Spanish Flu, which killed almost as many Canadians as had died in the trenches of the Western Front. The second was the only general strike ever to occur in Canadian labour history in the city of Winnipeg. The third was demobilization, as Canada, like all the fighting nations, attempted to convert from wartime to a peacetime society. The second was All three events, in some distant way interrelated, indicated the chaotic nature of Canadian society in the immediate postwar years.
Postwar Chaos
Quite sensibly, the federal government established the Department of Soldiers' Re-Establishment to reintegrate returning soldiers into the mainstream of Canadian life. Despite its lofty name, the federal agency was hamstrung in its efforts. The most urgent problem was as simple as it was confounding. There were simply far too few ships to take the great numbers of soldiers back home to Canada.
Not surprisingly, as the days turned into weeks and then into months, and still the Canadian soldiers remained in Britain, frustration began to build. Frustration turned into anger when they were told that many of the inadequate number of ships available had to be repaired. That was simply too much for some soldiers. On March 5, 1919, in the small British town of Kimmel, Canadian soldiers rioted. Peace was eventually restored when some Canadian soldiers from nearby Camp 20 quelled the uprising. Five rioters were killed and fifteen leaders were arrested and eventually given sentences of between one and seven years' hard labour.
However, those soldiers, eventually numbering over 600 000 had to return to Canada and be demobilized. They were reunited with family and loved ones. Emotionally and psychologically they had to try to reintegrate themselves into the mainstream of Canadian life and pick up the pieces of their lives after having been away for years and having witnessed the horrors of war. Economically, they had to try to get a job, which was no easy task given the fact that women had entered the labour force in large numbers, and many wanted to remain there. Added to that, in many cases, their schooling and training had been interrupted by war coupled with the fact that the various munitions industries had to shut down at the close of the war. Clearly, demobilization pressures added considerably to the dislocation felt in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Arguably the most emotionally trying aspect of the entire demobilization process was the psychological disconnection that many returning soldiers felt. On the one hand, they returned home to parades and speeches and were made to feel like heroes. That was doubtlessly warranted as they had risked their lives so people back home could maintain their way of life. They had seen the muck and mire of the trenches, witnessed their buddies cruelly slaughtered before their very eyes, and suffered a litany of maladies from trench foot to shell shock. Many returned crippled in body and spirit. They felt that as they had served and suffered for their country, their country, in turn, owed them something. However, many felt lost, unable to reconnect with their family, unable to find meaningful work, and unable to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Mackenzie King & Arthur Meighen
The 1921 Election
The election of 1921 put Meighen and the Conservatives at a disadvantage, as they had to run on some of the unpopular decisions, including conscription, made by Borden during the war years. Meighen offered no apologies for either the War Services Act or the War Measures Act, both of which he drafted, nor did he offer any regrets for his crushing of the Winnipeg General Strike. His chances for electoral success were further diminished by the onset of a national recession that had begun in 1920. Many small businesses went bankrupt and several banks teetered on the brink.
A political wildcard was thrown into the mix - the emergence of a new political party, the Progressives. Capitalizing on farm discontent on the Prairies and in Ontario, it was comprised largely of former Liberals who had bolted the party over high tariffs. Farmers desperately wanted lower tariffs - or even free trade - to reduce the price of manufactured goods from central Canada. Both major parties opposed the policy seeing that it would cost them too many votes in the East where factory jobs depended on maintaining a high tariff.
In the 1921 election, King's Liberals prevailed with 116 seats. Meighen's Conservatives had taken a pounding, as they were able to capture only 50 seats. That meant that the new Progressive Party, led by Thomas A. Crerar became the official opposition - the first time in Canadian political history that a 'third' party had done so well - by winning 64 seats. Three Independents and two Labour MPs were also elected. King had become Prime Minister - but by the slimmest of margins. He would serve as Prime Minister for 22 out of the next 27 years. Significantly, the Canadian House of Commons was divided along regional lines for the first time in its history as the Liberals had won in Quebec and the Maritimes, while the Progressives swept the West. Also of note in the 1921 election was one of the new Progressive MPs, Agnes Macphail, the first woman to be elected into the House of Commons.
Regional Politics
Another interesting dimension of the 1921 election was the emergence of regional political movements. Those disgruntled farmers who failed to find a home in the Progressive Party, opted to support regional farmers' parties. United Farmers Parties formed the government in several provinces at the start of the 1920s. In Ontario, in response to rapid industrialization, the UFO emerged to champion the rural, agrarian way of life. On the Prairies, United Farmers parties, wracked by internal dissension, were united in their opposition to central Canadian banks, railroads, and industrialists.
During the postwar recession, a Maritime Rights movement sought to champion local Atlantic issues. The movement especially wanted to combat the decline in the coal mining industry, which lost ground to the new sources of power, oil and hydroelectricity. Although the Maritime Rights movement never coalesced into a viable political party, it did pressure federal parties.
In Quebec, too, the sense of regional loyalty grew with the publication of Roman Catholic priest and historian Lionel-Adolphe Groulx's "L'Action Francaise which promoted a Quebec nationalism founded on the values of the Church and the farmer. Groulx depicted the modern developments of industrialization and urbanization as a threat to Quebec nationalism. Many regard his writings as the foundation for what was to become the separatist movement in Quebec. Henri Bourassa, the other prominent Quebec leader, provided an alternative to Groulx's nationalism. Bourassa, unlike Groulx, was a member of the federal Liberal party and sought improvements for his province within the existing system. In Quebec provincial politics, Liberal Louis-Alexandre Taschereau held power from 1920 until 1936. Taschereau did much to improve and modernize Quebec's economy and social and educational systems. During the 1920s, foreign investment flooded into the province.
In office, King remained the effective pragmatist. He reduced tariffs enough to keep the support of the Progressives, but not enough to anger the industrialists. His speeches in urban Ontario favoured protectionism, while those in rural Ontario and the Prairies supported free trade. He won Quebec support by criticizing British imperialism. He promised to introduce innovative ideas such as old age pensions. Seemingly, he offered something for everybody. All those policies enabled King to successful navigate the tightrope of his minority government status.
 Sidelight: King George V Proclaims Canada's Coat of ArmsOn November 21, 1921, King George V]] proclaimed Canada's Coat of Arms, as the Arms or Ensigns Armorial of the Dominion of Canada, designating white and red as the official Canadian colours. The Royal Coat of Arms of Canada (formally known as "The Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Canada") is closely modelled after the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom. |
The 1925 Election and the King-Byng Crisis
King called an election on October 29, 1925 to try to win a majority government, attempting to capitalize on the return of economic prosperity. The results shocked him as now Meighen and the Conservatives won a minority government (Conservatives - 116 seats and Liberals - 99). King even lost his own riding. The Progressives had slumped to 24 seats. Maritime voters had punished King and the Liberals for failing to keep their promises to lower freight rates and tariffs. But King won over the Progressives and Independents, such as J. S. Woodsworth, one of the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike. They refused to support Meighen's minority government and instead vote with King. So once again, King was Prime Minister and once again, Meighen had been denied.
A scandal, however, soon rocked King's government. Some Liberals were discovered to have accepted bribes in return for allowing smuggled alcohol into the United States, where it was prohibited. The recently elected Progressives MPs would not support what they considered to be a corrupt government. It was simply a matter of time being Leader of the Opposition Meighen would table a motion of non-confidence.
King, knowing what was coming, thought he could out-maneuver Meighen. The Prime Minister went to Governor General Lord Byng and asked him to call a new election. Byng refused Prime Minister King's request since an election had just been contested and the Conservatives held more seats than the Liberals. A constitutional crisis was at hand. The Governor General is appointed by the Prime Minister and normally does whatever the Prime Minister requests of him. However, the Governor General does have the constitutional right to refuse a Prime Minister's request to call a new election if there is a chance that another person can form a government.
Byng asked Meighen to form a new government, thinking that the new Prime Minister could obtain enough support from the other parties. King resigned as Prime Minister and Meighen replaced him. However, Meighen's tenure was short-lived, lasting only three days before his government was defeated in the House of Commons. This time Byng had no option and so a new election was called for September 14, 1926.
RESOURCE: The King-Byng Affair Correspondence
King, ever the wily politician, crafted his campaign strategy around the notion of an appointed official, the Governor General, telling an elected official, the Prime Minister, what to do. And to make matters worse, that appointed official was not even Canadian. King was much in tune with the times as he played a subtly anti-British, pro-American card. By mid-decade, the United States had replaced Britain as Canada's largest foreign investor. King's appeal to a new sense of nationalism carried the day as he and his Liberals were returned to office with a majority government.
Foreign Policy and the Imperial Conference
Much of Canadian foreign policy during this time period was grounded in the concept of gaining greater autonomy from Britain. In 1922, the Chanak crisis occurred. Chanak, a seaport located along the Dardanelles, was coveted Turkish nationalists. To enforce their claim on the area, Turkish forces moved into the territory, trapping the British at Chanak. It appeared as if Britain and Turkey would go to war. Britain requested Canadian troops to provide assistance. However, Prime Minister King, looking to Canadian interests first, said that the issue would have to be debated in the Canadian House of Commons before any troops were committed. The Crisis was defused. However, the precedent had been established for a decade of Canadian insistence on autonomy.
In the following year, 1923, Canada signed its first treaty on its own, without British participation. The Halibut Treaty with the United States, once passed by the Canadian House of Commons, was sent to Britain for ratification. However, once again, Canada was signaling its growing independence.
During the 1926 Imperial Conference, a significant change in the relationship between Britain and the Dominions was reached. The Balfour Declaration recognized the complete autonomy of all the Dominions. Five years later, the 1931 Statute of Westminster confirmed the independence of the of what was now the British Commonwealth of Nations, which replaced the former British Empire. Canada was now free to conduct its own foreign policy. Canadian legislation no longer required prior approval of the British Parliament.
The Roar of the "Roaring Twenties"
The decade of the 1920s was different, unique, and exciting. It was an age of prosperity and optimism. However, the positive aspects very unequally distributed. The recession at the start of the decade hurt millions, especially Maritimers and struggling Prairie farmers. Dozens of small business collapsed. Even one bank, the Home Bank with its 71 branches, went bankrupt. By 1921, European wheat farmers had recovered and the market for Canadian wheat slumped. Canadian wheat prices plummeted from $2.45/bushel in 1918 to 80 cents in 1921.
Canada's aboriginal peoples did not benefit or participate in the economic prosperity that returned by mid-decade. Government policies continued to promote a policy of assimilation. Residential schools were perhaps the most insidious aspect of that policy. Aboriginal children were taken from their families and forced into unfamiliar surroundings where they were beaten for speaking their own language. They were taught that their culture was backward and shameful. Ancient customs, such as the potlatch and the sun dance, were outlawed by the government. Aboriginals were not even allowed to vote.
Radio & the Talkies
However, for some, there was a real 'roar' to the 1920s. It could be seen in many different areas. AM radio, invented by Canadian Reginald Fessenden, began in Canada on May 20, 1920, with the first regular radio broadcasting in North America from station XWA in Montreal. The station actually started experimental broadcasts on December 1, 1919, and has a strong claim to being the first commercial broadcaster in the world. The station changed its call letters to CFCF ("Canada's First, Canada's Finest") on November 4, 1920, and today it's known as AM 940 CINW Montreal.
Within ten years, there were nearly 300 000 radios in Canada. However, there were few Canadian radio programs available so most Canadian 'crystal sets' were tuned into American stations. On June 26, 1925, Edward S. Rogers of Toronto invented the alternating-current tube, allowing the world's first plug-in batteryless radios. The call letters of his new Toronto radio station, CFRB, stood for 'Rogers Batteryless'.
By the end of the decade, over 80% of what Canadians heard on their radios came from the United States. In 1928, the government appointed a royal commission, the Aird Commission, to study the state of Canadian broadcasting. Eventually, the Aird Commission's report would lead to the formation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936.
Many sought relief from the harshness of the war years and aimed to have fun. Light-hearted singers, such as Al Jolson and Rudy Vallee, were as popular in Canada as they were in their own United States. Dances, like the Bunny Hop and the Charleston, were performed with equal abandon on both sides of the border.
Canadians in Hollywood
Canadian Mack Sennett was a silent movie pioneer, with his Keystone Kops comedies, starring a young talent named Charlie Chaplin.
As silent films gave way to the "talkies", several Canadian women conquered Hollywood, including Marie Dressler, Fay Raye (King Kong), Norma Shearer, Yvonne de Carlo and Mary Pickford, 'America's Sweetheart,' born Gladys Smith in Toronto. Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks were founders of the United Artists Studio.
Producers Louis B. Mayer and the Warner Brothers were also raised in Canada. Director John Huston was another pioneer.
Guy Lombardo Rings in New Years Eve
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1929, Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played Auld Lang Syne to usher in the New Year for the very first time, in their first annual New Year's Eve Party at the Hotel Roosevelt Grill in New York.
Lombardo's show was broadcast over the CBS radio network, and Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians became immensely popular.
Born in London Ontario, Guy founded the Lombardo Orchestra with his brother Carmen in 1916. Auld Lang Syne was his band's theme song before 1929, but this was the start of a New Year's Eve tradition. The Lombardo Orchestra is the longest running act in show business history, and has premiered over 500 hit songs, more than any other musical organization. The Lombardo New Year's Eve Party, which later switched to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, was the longest running annual special program in radio history.
The Lombardo Orchestra has performed for more than 1.5 billion TV viewers since they first telecast their New Year's Eve Party in 1954. Guy Lombardo died in 1977. Auld Lang Syne is a poem and song by Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns said he heard an old man singing the words, and wrote them down; but Burns is considered the original author. The literal translation means "old long since" which less literally meant "days gone by."
Art & The Group of Seven
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The Growth of Canadian Sport
Sidelight: James Naismith Invents Basketball Naismith typed up the rules of what he called "Boxball", and on December 21, 1891, got a janitor to nail two peach baskets up on opposite ends of the gymnasium at the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA Colleg. He then instructed his students to toss soccer balls into them, thus inventing the game of basketball. Here's how Naismith remembered that day: The First Game  When Mr. Stubbins brot [sic] up the peach baskets to the gym I secured them on the inside of the railing of the gallery. This was about 10 feet from the floor, one at each end of the gymnasium. I then put the 13 rules on the bulletin board just behind the instructor's platform, secured a soccer ball and awaited the arrival of the class. I busied myself arranging the apparatus, all the time watching the boys as they arrived to observe their attitude that day. I felt that this was a crucial moment in my life as it meant success or failure of my attempt to hold the interest of the class and devise a new game. I had neither the advantage of age nor the benefit of experience to help me put this across. But I did then what I have found universally successful since. I gathered the class around the platform and frankly stated the difficulties confronting me-telling them how I tried my best to give them the kind of work I thought suitable for secretarial students, frankly stating that I had made a failure of my attempts to modify games but told them that I had an absolutely new one and asked them to give it a trial assuring them that I thought it would be good. The class did not show much enthusiasm but followed my lead. I lined them up, called the roll and asked T.D. Patton & E.S. Libby to step out and divide the class into two teams. I then explained what they had to do to make goals, tossed the ball up between the two center men & tried to keep them somewhat near the rules. Most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, though tackling the man with the ball was not uncommon. If we had rules there must of necessity be some one to interpret and enforce the penalty. Two officials were appointed, one to watch the play with the ball, the other to watch the actions of the players & call the fouls.  We now had a team game with equipment and an objective. The next question that arose was how are we going to start the game? I reviewed the games and found that the intent of the start was to give each side an equal chance of obtaining the ball. In water polo the teams were at each end of the pool and the ball was thrown into the center. I felt that this would not do as two teams rushing at each other would at least make for roughness. The plan of soccer was dismissed as it gave too much opportunity to keep the ball in the hands of the thrower's team, thus giving them a decided advantage. I then recalled the method of putting the ball in play in Eng. Rugby when the ball had gone over the side lines. The forward lined up in a row perpendicular to the side line, the teams opposite each other. The umpire with his back to the field threw the ball in between these lines with no chance for determining who would receive it. I then thought of lining the teams up across the center of the floor and tossing it in between these lines. At this point I had a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach caused by the recollection of events that occurred in such a play. When one of our opponents saw that the opposite side secured the ball he would arrange things in such a way that as the player descended with the ball in his hands over his head his shoulder, elbow or knee was in the spot where his stomach was landing. This again made for roughness. I then thought that if two men were selected to jump for the ball that it would eliminate roughness and give each side an equal chance. Again a problem presented itself and no solution appeared. By what line of association it occurred I do not know but I was back in Bennie's Corners, playing duck on the rock. The whole scene came before me--across the road that led to Walter Gardner's home was a large rock higher than our knees & larger than a washtub. On this rock one or more would place their ducks-a rock twice as large as our fists. The rest of us stood behind a line about ten feet away from the rock. The object of the game was for "it" to tag one of the boys who was retrieving his duck. He could do this only when his duck was on the rock. It was the object of the men behind the line to knock "its" duck off the rock when he would need to replace it before he could tag anyone. In throwing at the duck on the rock, I recalled that at times we would throw our duck as hard as we could & thus knock his away some distance. If, however, we were all back of the line and "it" was ready to tag us we would throw our duck in a curve so as to knock his off & ours would fall on the near side & thus be easily retrieved. In this other case the duck was thrown in a curve and accuracy took the place of force. The idea occurred to me that if the goal was horizontal instead of vertical the player would be compelled to throw in a curve and force which made for roughness would be of no value. I then concluded that the goal into which the ball should be thrown would be horizontal. I then thought of a box, somewhat resembling our old rock, into which the ball should be tossed. It then occurred to me that the team would form a nine man defense around the goal & it would be impossible to make a goal. The shot would need to be highly arched to win any chance of entering the goal. It then occurred to me that if the ball did not need to reach the ground the defense would be useless in that condition. I then thought of putting the goal above the heads of the defense & their only chance to prevent a goal was to go out & get the ball or prevent his opponent from throwing to the goal. Naismith had originally wanted to call the game "Boxball", but a janitor came up with peach baskets instead. In that first game, the baskets didn't have holes in the bottom so the janitor had to stand on a ladder to remove the balls. Naismith's Rules of Basketball were published in the YMCA newsletter on January 15, 1892, and the game became a runaway success.  SOURCES: Heritage Auction Galleries (Acquired by MLSE, December 2006) |
Toronto Ices First Professional Team
Professional hockey emerged as Canada's most popular sport in the early years of the Twentieth Century.
On December 28, 1906, an elite group of Toronto hockey players came together and played their first paying game as The Toronto Hockey Club.
Toronto's first professional club, also known as the "Toronto Professionals" or more simply the "Torontos," were set up to play exhibition matches against the best clubs in Canada and the US.
Pro sports were frowned on by many in those days - John Ross Robertson, Toronto Telegram owner and president of the amateur Ontario Hockey Association thundered, "If we Britons are as great as the glory of our Empire, then the flag of amateurism will be as safe from harm as the Union Jack in the hands of your fathers and mine!"
By 1907 there were enough OHA players who wanted to turn pro, and the new Ontario Professional Hockey League was founded, importing stars from the Toronto Marlboros and other teams. Led by Newsy Lalonde from Cornwall, Ontario, the Torontos captured the first OPHL championship.
On March 14, 1908, the Torontos played the Montreal Wanderers in a sudden-death game for the Stanley Cup, losing 6-4. In 1909, the owners decided to withdraw the team from the OPHL, and it folded. In 1911, the National Hockey Association granted Toronto two franchise, and a new Toronto Hockey Club rose from the ashes, wearing a blue sweater with a big white "T". They played in the new NHL as the Toronto Arenas and 1927, under the leadership of Conn Smyth, the club become the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At that time, listening to games of the recently created National Hockey League on the radio became something of a national obsession.
The 1928 Olympics saw Canada take home several track and field medals. Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld, later named Canada's female athlete of the half century, won gold and silver. Percy Williams won double gold in the 100 and 200m sprints, and even had a chocolate bar, "Our Percy," named after him.
Lionel Conacher, nicknamed 'the Big Train,' was named Canada's male athlete of the half century for his success in several different sports.
The Edmonton Grads
In 1914, Edmonton HIgh School Principal Percy Page, coach of the girl's basketball team at the McDougall Commercial High School, founded the Commercial Graduates Basketball Club (Edmonton Grads) from the graduating girls who wanted to keep playing. The Grads ruled womens basketball from 1915-40, winning 93% of their games and holding the world senior women's title (Underwood Trophy) for 17 consecutive years. In its 25 years the team lost only 20 of 522 games and won Olympic gold titles in 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1936. James Naismith called them "the finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor". In 1955, Page was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a basketball builder.
The Edmonton Grads arguably still holds the world record for athletic team success. They held the world senior women's title for 17 consecutive years.
The Bluenose
In sports, too, Canada enjoyed great success in the 1920s. In fact, the decade is sometimes referred to as "Canada's Golden Age of Sport." One of the most famous sporting achievements of the twenties was the schooner Bluenose, winner of the International Fisherman's Trophy in 1921.
On March 26, 1921, Smith & Rhuland in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia launched the 40 m long fishing and racing schooner Bluenose. The ship was designed by William Roué of Halifax, a self-taught naval architect, and built at a cost of $35,000; she was made entirely of Nova Scotia wood, except for the Oregon pine needed for the masts.
The name "bluenose" originated as a nick-name for Nova Scotians. Some believe the name "Bluenosers," was first given to the crewmen of schooners that carried blue-skinned Nova Scotia potatoes to Boston in the late eighteenth century.
Bluenose was to work as a "salt banker" on the Grand Banks, and then compete for the new Halifax Herald International Fisherman's Trophy and $4,000 prize. The race rivalry had been going on unofficially for years between the fishermen of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Senator W.H. Dennis, owner of the Halifax Herald, sponsored the trophy and prize for real sail carriers that were bona-fide working ships.
In the first race, US schooner Esperanto out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, defeated the Delawana of Lunenburg and took the trophy to New England.
But in the second race, on October 24, 1921, the Americans had to compete against Bluenose, commanded by Captain Angus J. Walters and fresh from her first season fishing on the Grand Banks, where she was highliner of the Lunenburg fleet, having caught more than any other ship.
Bluenose sailed to a commanding victory over American schooner Elsie, in a best two-out-of-three series over a 40-mile course near Halifax. Bluenose repeated the victory in 1922, 1923, 1931 and 1938, and also held the record for the largest catch of fish ever brought into Lunenburg.
Bluenose never once gave up the cup throughout a keenly contended career during the next 17 years of racing. No challenger, American or Canadian, could wrestle the trophy from her. The Depression halted further racing, and in the summer of 1933 Bluenose sailed up the St. Lawrence River and into Lake Michigan to represent Canada at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. She was put up in Toronto for the winter of 1933-34, and in 1935, represented Canada at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the reign of King George V and Queen Mary. While at Spithead, Captain Walters was invited to the Royal Yacht where the King presented him with that vessel's mainsail.
The government put her likeness on the ten cent piece in 1937.
A final race series took place in 1938, then Walters installed engines in an effort to extend the schooner's fishing career off the Grand Banks against the new trawlers. But soon the Bluenose was in debt as creditors came looking for payment for the engines. Walters bought the schooner for $7,000, hoping to preserve the ship as a memorial to both racing and the age of the fishery. But the government didn't step in to help as he had hoped.
In 1942, despite the efforts of Walters to keep the ship in Nova Scotia, he had to sell her to an American firm, the West Indies Trading Company out of Havana. The Bluenose spent the last two years of her life sailing as a merchant ship delivering cargo between the islands in the Caribbean.
When Walters cast her lines off that May, he recalled, "There was a lump in my throat. Somehow I knew it was goodbye. We'd seen a lot together in fair weather and foul, and the Bluenose was like part of me." Walters started up a dairy, getting up at 4 a.m. well into his 80s to deliver milk to local families each day.
He was curling at the local club on Jan. 29, 1946 when he received word that the Bluenose had struck a reef off Haiti and sunk. He was heartbroken.
In 1963, when he was 82, he helped drive the first spike into the keel of the Bluenose II after the provincial government decided to build a replica that now serves as a goodwill ambassador.
Angus Walters summed up his beloved schooner in these words: "The wood of the vessel that will beat the Bluenose is still growing!"
Sidelight: Bombardier and His Snowmobile Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born at Valcourt, near Sherbrooke, Québec, on April 16, 1907, to a family of prosperous farmers and shopkeepers.  Armand was not deterred. By 1926, he had opened his own garage in Valcourt, and kept happily tinkering with all kinds of equipment and machinery, including a drive system for a tracked vehicle. But it took a tragedy to push him harder towards his life's goal - in 1935, during a blizzard, his 2 year old child died of appendicitis because snowed in roads kept him from getting the boy to the nearest hospital, 50 km away.  But Bombardier always had a sense of fun, and still dreamed of "a little machine that will float on snow, and even take me back up these hills!" In 1958 he found a light weight 2-stroke single cylinder Austrian made engine called the Rotax that could power such a vehicle, and by 1959 had made 250 snowmobiles he called Ski-Dogs - a typographical error in the literature changed the name to Ski-Doo. The SkiDoo was a runaway success, and 1969 sales rose to almost a quarter million machines a year. Today's Bombardier Inc. is one of Canada’s manufacturing giants, branching out into aviation, trains and transportation engineering. |
The Persons Case
The position of women certainly 'roared' during the decade of the 1920s. Having obtained the right to vote in the immediate aftermath of World War One, Canadian women set about to build on that right. The exemplary performance of Canadian female athletes began to break down some long held stereotypes. However, much discrimination continued. By 1929, only one quarter of young women attended high school. Few women entered professional careers. Middle class women were expected to stop working when they married.
The Famous Five or The Valiant Five were five Canadian women who, in 1927 asked the Canadian Parliament if women were legal persons. The reason was that the requirement to sit in the Canadian Senate was that an individual be designated a legal 'person.' Up to 1928, no woman had ever been appointed to the Upper House simply because it was assumed that the word 'persons' meant only men.
The case came to be known as the Persons Case. The Famous Five were:
- Emily Murphy (the British Empire's first woman judge;
- Irene Parlby - farm women's leader, activist and first woman Cabinet minister in Alberta;
- Nellie McClung - a famous suffragist and member of the Alberta legislature;
- Louise McKinney - one of the first women elected to the House of Commons of Canada, and
- Henrietta Edwards - an advocate for working women and a founder of the Victorian Order of Nurses.
Background of the "Persons" Case
The British North America Act of 1867, that created the Dominion of Canada, used the word "persons" to refer to more than one person, and "he" to refer to one person.
A ruling in British common law in 1876 said that "Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges."
In 1916, Alberta social activist Emily Murphy was appointed as the first woman police magistrate in Alberta. Her appointment was challenged on the grounds that women were not "persons under the BNA Act."
In 1917, the Alberta Supreme Court ruled that women were indeed "persons". That ruling only applied within the province of Alberta.
Judge Murphy then allowed her name to be put forward as a candidate for the Senate, but PM Robert Borden turned her down because she was not considered a "person" under the BNA Act.
In 1927, Judge Murphy started an initiative to open the Senate to women. She and the four other women she chose for the campaign - Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Nellie McClung - were skilled social reform militants. They felt that Senate membership for women was important, because, until the 1970s, it approved divorces, and women in the Senate would help it make more equitable decisions on family matters. Now known as the Famous Five, the group signed a petition to the Senate, asking "Does the word "persons" in Section 24, of The British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?" The Senate declined to consider the matter.
In 1927, Emily Murphy decided to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada for clarification. On August 27, 1927, the Famous Five asked the Supreme Court of Canada to examine the meaning of the word "persons" in Section 24 of the British North America Act to determine whether it included female persons. The Court took the question under consideration on March 14, 1928.
On April 24, 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada answered "no." The decision was that when the BNA Act was written in 1867, women did not vote, run for office, nor serve as elected officials; only male nouns and pronouns were used in the BNA Act; and since the British House of Lords did not have a woman member, Canada should not change the tradition for its Senate. One of the Supreme Court's arguments held that the Act should be interpreted in light of the times in which it was written. Since women were not politically active in 1867, they could not be elected.
The Famous Five appealed the Supreme Court of Canada decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, at the time the highest court of appeal for Canada, with the help of new Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The women went to London, England, to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which was effectively Canada's highest court at that time.
On October 18, 1929, the five Lords of the Judicial Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that "the word 'persons' in Section 24 included both the male and female sex." Lord Sankey, Lord Chancellor of the Privy Council, wrote that "yes, women are persons ... and eligible to be summoned and may become Members of the Senate of Canada." The Privy Council also said "that the exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word "persons" should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?"
Four months later, in 1930, Mackenzie King appointed Cairine Wilson to the Canadian Senate. Many expected he would chose Emily Murphy, because of her leadership role in the Persons Case, but Murphy was a Conservative, and Cairine Wilson had worked as a Liberal party organizer.
Along with Thérèse Casgrain, the Famous Five have been commemorated on Canada's new fifty-dollar bill.
The Famous Five have also been commemorated with a statue on Canada's Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada and at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary, located in the women's home province of Alberta. The City of Edmonton has named five parks in its River Valley Parks System in honour of each of the "Famous Five".
RESOURCES:
- Edwards v. A.G. of Canada [1928 S.C.R. 276 ] - decision of the Supreme Court of Canada
- Edwards v. A.G. of Canada [1930 A.C. 124 (P.C.) ] - decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
- Famous Five site, with archival correspondence on the Persons case].
- The Famous Five Foundation "educates and inspires Canadians by celebrating the value of women's leadership and achievements. The foundation builds leadership capacity in our community, commemorating the F5's conviction, courage and tenacity."
The End of Prohibition
Much else added to the 'roar' of the decade. The 'flapper,' a young woman who engaged in questionable activities such as smoking and drinking, dressed provocatively, and wore a short, bob haircut, came to symbolize the excitement of the era. A new dance craze, the Charleston, first appeared in a theatre show called 'Runnin' Wild' caught everyone's attention. The advent of advertising made people want to 'keep up with the Joneses' as people sought to acquire the latest labour-saving device. Art Deco was a new art style that highlighted chrome and glass. Fashion changed as hemlines rose to what had been unthinkable heights only a few years before.
Finally, prohibition of alcohol, turned out to a mixed blessing. It succeeded in reducing alcohol consumption by as much as 80% in some provinces. However, it led to a wave of crime and smuggling as people sought their alcohol and governments discovered that legislating morality did not always work. In the 1920s, the people voted for provincial control insted of prohibition.
 Dr. Frederick Banting Discovers a Treatment For Diabetes Following the birth of an idea and nine months of experimentation, and through the combined efforts of four men at the University of Toronto, insulin for the treatment of diabetes was first discovered and later purified for human use. Rural Canadian physician Banting first conceived the idea of extracting insulin from the pancreas in 1920. He and his assistant C.H. Best prepared pancreatic extracts to prolong the lives of diabetic dogs with advice and laboratory aid from Professor J.J.R. Macleod. The crude insulin extract was purified for human testing by Dr. J.B. Collip. Insulin, now made from cattle pancreases, lifted the death sentence for diabetes sufferers around the world. |
Sidelight: Birth of the Dionne Quintuplets Allan Roy Dafoe 1883-1943, the doctor who delivered the babies, also became a celebrity, when he arranged to make them wards of the Ontario government. The quints lived, under his supervision, in a virtual theme park called Quintland, across from the parents' home. During the sad years of the Great Depression, over 3 million people - up to 6,000 a day - came to watch the adorable little girls play behind a one-way screen. Canada's biggest tourist attraction, they endorsed hundreds of products, ranging from Quaker Oats to Beehive corn syrup to Lysol, which earned the Ontario government hundreds of millions of dollars, and provided them with a trust fund of almost $1 million. The girls were returned to their parents in November of 1943 after a long custody battle. Their family reunion was bitter and the surviving sisters have recently claimed they were sexually abused by their father. They moved to Montreal when they were old enough. Annette, Cecile and Marie found husbands, but all three marriages ended in divorce. Emilie, who was epileptic, entered a convent; she die of a seizured in August 1954. In 1965, the four survivors published an account of their life, "We Were Five". After Marie died of ill health in February 1970, Annette, Cecile and Yvonne started a lawsuit against the Ontario government for a portion of their trust fund, and in March 1998 settled for $4 million. Hollywood made three movies about the Quints: The Country Doctor (1936), Reunion (1936) and Five of a Kind (1938 - poster below).  |
| Roaring Twenties - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| E. Maturing Culture and Identity →→ 1. Strikes and Labour Disputes 1918-1920 → 2. Canada in the Roaring Twenties → 3. The Great Depression and the Dirty Thirties → → 4. Home Made Solutions and Foreign Panaceas →→ A. World War II |
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