The Great Depression was a decade long recession that was started from the stock market crashing on October 29, 1929. It had how it was started and how it was affecting many things including countries putting high tariffs on foreign goods, debts from the first world war, and problems with unemployment, and how the government responded to these problems.
Before the depression started, the United States had become Canada's largest biggest trading partner. So that meant that if the U.S. economy crashed, Canada's economy would soon feel the effects. During the depression, the U.S. imposed high tariffs on foreign goods to protect their domestic market. However, this move led to other countries to also impose high tariffs. Once other countries
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These countries heavily relied on the U.S. to lend them money so they could pay back debts from the war. Later in the depression countries were unable to payback their debts due to the growth of protectionism and international trade decreasing. For example, Britain and France were in need of german reparations to pay off their own debts, but Germany was unable to meet this demand because their own economy was already falling to pieces. Because of Germany's inability to make the reparation payments, it affected other countries.
As the Depression got worse and worse, factories and businesses started shutting down and many people lost their jobs. Only 2.7% of the entire canadian population earned enough money to pay income tax. And married people at the time earned more than $2000 and single people earning about $100 paid tax. Many people were evicted from their homes because they were unable to pay the rent. It was common that if you were unable to pay rent, and you were homeless, and/you could be seen as a criminal.“If you were without a job, on the roads wandering, you are automatically became a criminal”-Quoted in Ten Lost Years,