The 1930’s Stock Market Crash was the beginning of a decade of misery as it ruined the lives of many Canadians. This huge crash devastated many businesses, caused numerous people to lose their jobs, and created challenging, hard times for countless families. During the Great Depression, the Canadian Government responded to the On-to-Ottawa Trek, created Prime Minister Bennett’s New Deal, and made new acts and tariffs. The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a protest conducted by unemployed men across Canada. The Trekkers were standing up for themselves in response to how the government was treating them in the relief camps. The main purpose of these camps was to provide relief for single, unemployed men from the Depression. These sites were located in isolated woods and while there men built roads, cleared land, and dug …show more content…
One of the acts was the Unemployment Relief Act. Provinces were given over twenty million dollars to use for a number of projects, particularly improving public works and building railways, roads, bridges, canals, and wharves. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act was another act the government constructed. This was done to help build irrigation systems and reservoirs so that farms could prosper again. These new acts were designed to provide work opportunities for the jobless. In addition to these acts, the government raised tariffs by more than fifty percent. They believed that by raising Canada’s import and export tax on goods to other countries, this would improve and stabilize the Canadian economy. These new acts and tariffs were supposed solutions that were meant to benefit workers, businesses, and farms. But regardless of spending money, the economy did not improve, trade barriers were set up against Canada, and drought and poverty forced families to leave their farms. Even though they created these acts and tariffs, they did not help in any