Prime minister R.B Bennett was not very helpful to Canadians during the Great Depression because he made strategic decisions for his political advantage. Firstly, When the Great Depression was at its worst in 1934, Bennett blamed the causes of the depression (The Roaring Twenties) which came from high investments, bank loans, and expensive manufacturing produce mainly based in Ontario and Quebec. Bennett fully accused Ontario and Quebec saying that they were “wasteful and extravagant”, so Ontario and Quebec were wealthy enough to handle their own crisis. Coming close to his election, Bennett suddenly changed his priorities of the population to bring unemployment benefits, minimum wage, and income taxation to Canadians by spending 20 million on the Unemployment Relief Act. which was inspired by Roosevelt's New Deal to combat the Great Depression in the …show more content…
This took much of the blame from the government's involvement in the Great Depression to the major business in Canada. But Bennetts priority of maintaining his appearance to stay in control of Canada was confirmed when poverty and unemployment rates dropped lower than Canadian first world standards represented, which is what really got Bennett's attention. In result, he changed his blaming tone to forgiveness when he came out with a budget of 20 million dollars towards funding the unemployment relief act directly referenced by Roosevelt. So it’s questionable that Benett didn’t reveal his budget of 20 million till the worst of the depression to make him look like a hero; making it questionable if the waited to look like a hero just before the election in order to stay in control of parliament. Secondly, In an effort to provide relief for farmers who lost their wheat supply due to the dust storms, PM. Bennett passed and funded the Unemployment and Farm relief act in