post-war canada prosperity, political changes, trudeau era, & economic challenges
TRANSCRIPT
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Post-War Canada
Prosperity, Political Changes, Trudeau Era, & Economic
Challenges
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Post-War Prosperity
• With the end of the war, people who had worked in war production industries faced losing their jobs
• Federal government wanted to manage the transition to a peace-time economy better than it had in World War I
• During the war, the provinces had transferred many powers to the federal government
• Prime Minister Mackenzie King wanted the federal government to keep these powers
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• Ottawa could then increase or decrease government spending to respond to problems such as unemployment and inflation
• Provinces were not keen on this – did not want to give up their powers
• C. D. Howe, King’s Minister of Reconstruction, Trade, and Commerce recommended that private business, with the help of government incentives, handle the change to the peace time economy
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• Companies received tax breaks to produce consumer goods and invest in new plants
• Crown corporations were sold off at low prices
• Factories began producing consumer goods such as appliances and cars
• Canada’s economy was booming
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Social Programs
• Canadians got used to social programs such as unemployment insurance and family allowances during the war
• They wanted to see these programs continue after the end of the war
• Federal government faced with the problem of providing similar social programs in all parts of the country even in provinces which were not wealthy enough to provide them
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“Equalization” or “Transfer” Payments
• Provinces would transfer taxation powers to federal government
• Federal government would then give grants to the provinces to provide social services such as education and health
• Federal government would also transfer to the poorer provinces some of the taxes collected in the richer provinces
• Through this arrangement, the federal government gained power over social programs
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Economic Prosperity
• Post-war prosperity was driven by development of natural resources such as oil, metals, and other minerals
• Boom towns sprung up across the country
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• Southern Ontario became the manufacturing centre of the country – 50% of nation’s plants and factories and 99% of automobile industry located there
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Mega-projects
• Government spent money improving roads, sewer systems, power plants, schools, and hospitals
• Several megaprojects were undertaken
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• 1950 – 1970 construction on the 7821 km Trans-Canada Highway – was longest national highway in the world
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• St. Lawrence Seaway, which was a joint project between Canada and the United States, was started in 1954 and finished in 1959
• It linked the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean
• Trans-Canada Pipeline – transport natural gas from Alberta to central Canada
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American Investment
• Americans regarded Canada as a important source of minerals and other natural resources
• American investment continued to increase in Canada
• By 1968, 88% of the oil industry in Canada was U.S. owned
• U.S. branch plants continued to open here• U.S. companies controlled more than half of all
manufacturing in Canada• Some worried that Canada was becoming the
“forty-ninth state”
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“Haves & Have-nots”
• Some Canadians were very successful businesspeople – built empires and employed a lot of people
• Examples: H. R. MacMillan in forestry, K. C. Irving in gas stations, forestry, and newspapers, Bronfman family’s Seagram liquor empire
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• Many working poor toiled away at difficult jobs where they made little money
• Women were paid less than men even if they did the same work
• Some women who worked outside the home were also subject to criticism
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Aboriginal Peoples
• Aboriginal people were especially disadvantaged
• Traditional territories polluted by resource industries
• Hunting grounds and way of life negatively affected by development of mines, highways, pipelines and boom towns
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• Their average wages/salaries were less than half those of non-Aboriginal Canadians
• In 1963, life expectancy for Aboriginal females was 35 years compared to 64 for non-Aboriginal females; 33 for Aboriginal men compared to 61 for non-Aboriginal men
• 36% of Aboriginal people were receiving social assistance
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• Housing was very sub-standard – many houses lacked running water, indoor baths, electricity, and sewer systems/septic tanks
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Post-War Politics
• In 1949, Newfoundland became a part of Canada
• Mackenzie King, who had been in power longer than any other prime minister, retired in 1948
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• Louis St. Laurent, a Quebec lawyer, replaced King as prime minister
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John Diefenbaker
• New leader of the Progressive Conservative party in the late 1950s
• Was a lawyer before entering politics • German heritage – saw himself as a Prairie
populist who spoke for and listened to ordinary people
• Believed in “unhypenated Canadianism” – all Canadians are equal regardless of their ethnic background – this made him unpopular in Quebec
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• Nationalist who was committed to preserving Canada’s ties to Britain and standing up to the Americans
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• Championed human rights – introduced Canadian Bill of Rights
• Gave status Indians living on reserves the right to vote
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Lester “Mike” Pearson
• Leader of Liberals appealed more to younger voters living in cities in Ontario and Quebec
• Believed in a Canada based on two founding peoples, French and English
• Felt that Canada’s ties to Britain would eventually be cut – Canada needed an identity that would be meaningful to the thousands of immigrants who had come here after WWII
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• Introduced trial abolition of capital punishment and easier divorce laws
• Introduced new Canadian flag and improved social welfare system
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Social Welfare
• Pearson’s government began Canada Pension Plan – improved existing pensions
• Introduced Canada Assistance Plan to help provinces pay for social assistance for people in need
• Also brought in medicare
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Medicare
• Fight for a government-funded medical system began in Saskatchewan
• Before 1960s, families who were seriously ill could be financially devastated by doctor and hospital bills
• In 1962, Saskatchewan Premier T. C. “Tommy” Douglas brought in a complete medical program that allowed all people in his province to get medical treatment without paying directly out of their own pockets
• Saskatchewan doctors opposed Douglas’s plan
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Medical Care Act
• Tommy Douglas left Saskatchewan and became the leader of the NDP in Ottawa
• Pearson’s Liberals thought they might lose votes to the NDP – so they added health care to their party platform
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• National Medical Care Act was passed in 1966
• Federal and provincial governments would share the cost of medical care by doctors and hospitals for all Canadians
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Canada’s Centennial
• Canada celebrated 100th birthday in 1967
• Expo 67 in Montreal
• Diefenbaker was defeated in a leadership convention of the Progressive Conservative party
• Pearson decided to step down as leader of the Liberals
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Trudeau Era
• Pierre Elliot Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party
• New kind of leader – glamorous and charismatic, drove a flashy Mercedes sports car, wore sandals and open-necked shirts, dated celebrities, and enjoyed performing for and joking with the media
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• Canadians, particularly young people, immediately embraced Trudeau
• “Trudeaumania” swept the nation
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“Just society”
• Trudeau believed that government had a responsibility to protect rights and freedoms of people
• Strong advocate of individual freedom – government should not interfere with people’s liberties
• Government should also work towards creating a more socially and economically just society
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Social Movements
• Late 1960s was time of significant social changes
• As a result of the baby boom, more half of the population of North America was under 25
• Youth were into rock music, “psychedelic” fashion, long hair, sexual promiscuity, and experimentation with drugs – way to protest mainstream society
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• Many youth took part in protests against the Vietnam War or got involved in the women’s, civil rights, and environmental movements
• Politicians responded by providing more money for work and activities for youth, lowering the voting age to 18, and lowering the legal drinking age to age to 18 also
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Women’s Movement
• Feminism became a significant force• Many women started to reject the “restricted”
role of wife and mother that was deeply rooted in society in the post-war period
• In the workplace, many women were relegated to low-paying jobs such as waitresses, hairdressers, secretaries, and clerks
• Employers could legally discriminate against women in both wages and benefits
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Royal Commission on Status of Women
• Federal government established Commission in 1967 to examine women’s place in Canadian society
• Commission put forward a number of important conclusions:
• Women should have the right to choose to work outside the home
• Society in general, as well as parents, should take responsibility for children; daycare services should be provided
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• Women should be entitled to paid maternity leave from their jobs
• The federal government should do all it can to help overcome discrimination against women in society.
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National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
• Formed in 1971
• It was a pressure group that lobbied both provincial and federal governments to act on the Royal Commission’s recommendations
• Was successful in having women’s equality guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
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• Feminists in Canada wanted to see more women promoted to positions of responsibility in government, business, education, and the public service
• Challenged stereotypes of women and the kinds of work they do
• Pushed for more girls to pursue education in math and sciences
• By 1980s, more women were entering professions – medicine, politics, engineering, corporate management -- where they had previously been underrepresented
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Environmental Movement
• In 1960s, there was growing public concern about the effect that industrial pollution was having on the environment
• Organizations were set up to pressure governments to bring in controls on industries
• Federal and provincial governments passed laws requiring that businesses show that their plants and projects would not harm the environment
• Car makers had to make their vehicles more fuel-efficient and less polluting
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Greenpeace
• Started in BC in 1970 by a small group of activists who were concerned about nuclear bomb testing off the coast of Alaska
• Greenpeace members drove a small boat into the testing area and refused to leave until the test was cancelled
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• Greenpeace is still active today and often uses dramatic methods to draw attention to environmental issues
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Economic Challenges
• Early 1970s – oil and gas prices went up 400% overnight
• Led to inflation that lasted most of the 1970s – prices of products went up sharply, Canadian $ went down, businesses failed, and unemployment rose to its highest level since the Depression
• More dual-income families as women entered the work force
• Buying power of the average family had fallen for the first time since World War II
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Regionalism
• Recession of the 1970s hurt the resource-based provinces the hardest – BC and Atlantic Canada – a lot of layoffs
• Western alienation became strong – Prairie provinces and BC believed that Ottawa favoured central Canada over them
• Ottawa responded to oil crisis by freezing the price of domestic oil and gas and placed a tax on petroleum exported from western Canada
• This made the province of Alberta very angry – Premier Peter Lougheed believed his province had the right to charge world prices for its oil
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National Energy Program (NEP)
• To deal with unemployment and regional disparity, Trudeau government increased transfer payments to provinces to pay for social programs
• Spent millions on projects to help economic development, particularly in Atlantic Canada
• Brought in the National Energy Program
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NEP’s Goals
• Reduce consumption of oil• Protect Canadians from rising oil prices• Make Canada self-sufficient in oil
• Program gave petroleum companies $ to drill for oil in the Arctic and off the coast of Newfoundland
• Tried to encourage people to switch from oil to gas and electric sources of energy
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• Alberta reacted angrily
• By 1984, NEP was dismantled, but feelings of bitterness from the West lasted many years
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Debt Crisis
• It was expensive to protect the economic well-being of Canada and to fund social programs
• The federal government began operating at a deficit – its expenditures were greater than its revenues
• It was spending more money than it was taking in
• It began borrowing money to pay for its programs
• By the time Trudeau left office in 1984, the federal debt was almost $160 billion
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Mulroney and the Debt
• When he was elected in 1984, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney reduced taxes to stimulate the economy and cutting social programs.
• He also argued that the Free Trade Agreement would cause businesses to flourish and they would hire more people
• His plan did not work
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• Canada was hit by a recession in 1990• Businesses went under and people lost their
jobs• More people needed welfare and unemployment
insurance• Debt increased and government had to increase
taxes• Conservatives were dealt a significant defeat in
the 1993 election – only two Conservative MPs won seats
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Liberals and Debt
• When Jean Chretien’s Liberals came to power in 1993, they inherited a $466 billion debt
• In the beginning, they spent $6 billion on infrastructure projects (roads, bridges) to boost the economy
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• A year later, interest rates went up, and federal finance minister Paul Martin announced that Canada could no longer afford “big government”
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• Martin cut federal government spending to the tune of $25.3 billion over 3 years
• 40 000 federal government jobs were eliminated
• Transfer payments to provinces for post-secondary education, health, and welfare were cut substantially
• Subsidies to businesses were ended
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“Tough Medicine”
• While federal government was achieving its goal, ordinary Canadians were hurt
• Universities and colleges had to raise tuition fees
• Cuts to health care – hospital wards closed, staff was reduced; RNs were replaced by aides with less training; hospital stays were shortened; people forced to go to US for treatment; people dying waiting for medical care
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• Increasing numbers of poor – homeless and people relying on food banks
• Thousands of children growing up in poverty