Click on the different concepts to explore the content.

Power
  • Canada sought to assert its autonomy in the British Empire.
  • During the two world wars, conscription divided French Canadians and English Canadians.
  • During the two world wars, the federal government implemented several measures in order to supply the war effort. In this context, the federal government intervened more broadly in provincial jurisdictions.
  • In 1931, the Statute of Westminster granted Canada almost complete autonomy.
  • After several decades in power (from 1897 to 1936), the Liberal Party of Québec was defeated by a party that advocated a traditional and conservative way of life: the Union nationale, led by Maurice Duplessis. The Union nationale was defeated in 1939 by Adélard Godbout’s Liberal Party, which held power until 1944.
Territory
  • To counter emigration to the United States and the impact of the Great Depression, the Québec government revived colonization programs to settle the regions.
  • The wealth of natural resources and strong hydroelectric potential in the territory formed the basis for Québec’s industrial growth.
  • The exploitation of natural resources contributed to the development of certain regions.
  • Two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, were created in 1905.
  • Labrador’s boundary was redefined in 1927.
Economy
  • The turn of the century saw Canada embark on a second phase of industrialization and the emergence of monopoly capitalism.
  • Canada’s foreign trade expanded but its trade balance was sometimes negative between 1896 and 1929.
  • The Roaring Twenties were marked by significant economic growth.
  • A stock market crash occurred in October 1929. In particular, it plunged Western economies, including Canada’s, into an economic depression, called the Great Depression.
  • During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate climbed, prompting governments to implement measures to revive the economy.
  • The nationalists of the École sociale populaire denounced the excesses of capitalism and advocated cooperatism as a means to develop the rural economy.
Society
  • Canada welcomed hundreds of thousands of immigrants. They contributed to giving the country a more multiethnic character. A xenophobic movement emerged in response. During the two world wars, immigration to Canada plummeted, particularly as a result of more severe immigration policies.
  • Workers’ living and working conditions were very difficult. Labour legislation was gradually implemented, but workers had a hard time making themselves heard. Some unions resorted to strikes.
  • The Catholic Church in Québec possessed great moral and cultural influence over French Canadian society.
  • Movements continued their struggle for change in society, including the reformist and feminist movements.
  • During the two world wars, many women worked in factories in order to meet labour demands.
  • Women won the right to vote at the federal level in 1918 and in Québec in 1940.
Culture
  • Imperialists placed great importance on the cultural and political ties that bound Canada to the British Empire. They promoted the English language, patriotism, and the defence and expansion of the British Empire.
  • French Canadian nationalists demanded, in particular, greater autonomy for Canada and better protection of Francophone Catholic minority rights. Starting in 1920, the French Canadians who subscribed to clerico‑nationalism believed that a rural way of life and conservative values would ensure the protection of their identity and culture.
  • The federal government created the Indian residential school system in Canada with the goal of assimilating Indigenous people.
  • Francophone Catholic minorities were subject to laws that reduced and limited instruction in French.
  • The Québec school system had significant shortcomings, including the low level of schooling among Francophones compared with that of Anglophones. Vocational schools were created to respond to new needs.
  • During the Roaring Twenties, Canadians wanted to take advantage of the economic prosperity: their consumption increased and they indulged in more entertainment.
  • The Great Depression prompted the emergence of new political parties.
Imperialism
  • Many English Canadians were imperialists as a result of the cultural and historical ties that bound them to the United Kingdom, and they expressed pride in belonging to the British Empire.
  • Imperialists believed that Canada was protected within the Empire and that Canada should take part in its expansion throughout the world.
  • A number of imperialists felt that English should be Canada’s only official language and Protestantism, the only official religion.
Liberalism
  • Québec Liberals, in power from 1897 to 1936, adopted policies to attract foreign investors.
  • French Canadian nationalists influenced by economic liberalism advocated that French Canadians be involved in the business world.
  • Godbout’s Liberal government, in power from 1939 to 1944, embarked on reforms in an effort to democratize and modernize Québec.
Urbanization
  • Starting in the 1910s, most Quebecers lived in cities.
  • Socio-economic disparities persisted or worsened between working-class neighbourhoods and wealthier neighbourhoods.
  • Working-class neighbourhoods were very densely populated, leading to the propagation of epidemics.
  • Provincial, federal and municipal governments took steps to offer a better quality of life to citizens in urban areas.

Explanation

The policy of the Laurier government

  • The prime minister of Canada, Wilfrid Laurier, adopted a policy of compromise to ease tensions that existed between imperialists and French Canadian nationalists. He wanted to develop Canada and promote its autonomy and identity, without breaking its ties to the British Empire. Several of the political choices he made during his mandate were related to his desire to focus on what the two groups had in common in order to encourage Canadian unity. For example:
    • He rejected the creation of a permanent imperial council, because the decisions rendered by the council would in effect be made by London, hindering Canada’s autonomy.
    • He supported Canada’s involvement in the Boer War, as the imperialists wanted, but did not impose conscription, since French Canadian nationalists opposed Canada’s involvement in this war.

Explanation

The two world wars

Explanation

Greater autonomy for Canada

Canada’s very active role over the course of the First World War enabled it to demand, during and after the war, greater autonomy from the United Kingdom.

Explanation

The Union nationale of Maurice Duplessis

  • Duplessis sought to affirm the unique character of French Canadian identity within Canada. To curb the effects of the Great Depression, he promoted a rural way of life and considered agriculture to be the backbone of Québec’s economy.
  • Duplessis believed that unions were harmful to the established order. He passed several anti-union laws and called on the police during labour disputes.
  • In 1937, he adopted the Padlock Act, which gave authorities the power to close an establishment suspected of harbouring communists.
  • The Duplessis government limited its interventions in the area of social assistance. It established close ties with the Catholic Church and relied on it to offer services in education and health care.

Explanation

The exploitation of natural resources

  • Québec, Ontario and British Columbia were the provinces that benefited the most from the second phase of industrialization because of their large quantities of exploitable natural resources.
  • The main industrial sectors that developed were ore processing, pulp and paper and hydroelectricity as well as electrometallurgy and electrochemistry.
  • In Québec, industrial growth was primarily related to the exploitation of natural resources, such as water, timber, copper, silver, gold, zinc and asbestos.

Explanation

Changes to the territory

  • The influx of immigrants to Western Canada in the early 20th century led to the creation of two new provinces in 1905: Alberta and Saskatchewan.
  • The boundary between Québec and Labrador was a contentious issue. In 1927, the Privy Council in London ruled on the boundary. Even today, the Québec government does not recognize this boundary.

Explanation

Manufacturing output and trade

  • During the second phase of industrialization, the dominant economic activities were those of the secondary sector, which includes all activities related to the processing of natural resources into manufactured goods.
  • Canada exported diverse products. Wheat and wheat flour were mostly exported to Europe, while pulp and paper products were primarily exported to the United States.
  • The need to access natural resources and the growth in trade promoted the development of transportation.
  • Transportation by motorized vehicle grew, and a road network developed. The Port de Montréal was redeveloped to respond to the needs of the wheat trade.

Definition

An economic system in which a company can market a product without any competition or assume full control over the production process of this product.

Explanation

The mechanisms of the Great Depression

  • The drop in stock market values, during the crash of 1929, marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
  • Economic depression is a vicious cycle. By trying to restore profitability, businesses decrease production and lay off workers. Workers with no income further add to reducing consumption.

The repercussions of the Great Depression

  • Since Americans were facing great financial hardship, they stopped buying as many Canadian products. The drop in exports had a considerable impact on the rate of production in Québec.
  • Businesses had to cut their workforces, and the unemployment rate soared. Charitable organizations and religious communities stepped in to help those most in need, but this help fell far short of what was needed.

Explanation

Government measures

  • The governments adopted various measures to counter the effects of the Great Depression.
  • In Québec, the government, supported by the clergy and many French Canadian nationalists, introduced a new colonization program to settle remote regions. A “return to the land” seemed like a good solution to counter unemployment and poverty.
  • Colonization of remote regions had in fact started in Abitibi, when this region was opened up to colonization in 1910. The discovery of copper and gold deposits in the early 1920s relaunched colonization and contributed to the urbanization of the region.

Explanation

Challenging capitalism

  • Part of the population, shaken by the consequences of the Great Depression, no longer trusted traditional governments. Some turned to political parties that challenged capitalism or democracy, like the Communist Party of Canada or the Social Credit party.
  • Keynesianism was an economic school of thought that prompted a new reflection on capitalism. John Maynard Keynes, the British economist who started this school of thought, defended the idea that the state should intervene in economic cycles to better prevent economic slowdowns.
  • Founded in 1911 to disseminate the Catholic Church’s social doctrine, the École sociale populaire brought together more and more French Canadian nationalists. Its members also formulated a critique of capitalism by denouncing its excesses. In 1933, they proposed the Programme de restauration sociale and advocated cooperatism as a means to better develop the rural economy.

Explanation

Cooperatism

  • Cooperatism allowed for pooling the savings of small-scale investors. This movement started at the beginning of the 20th century in Québec when people with common interests joined forces to form cooperatives. These were organizations that promoted the pooling of resources, collective management and profit-sharing.
  • The Catholic Church found in the cooperative movement a means for pursuing its social action. The Union catholique des cultivateurs promoted the spread of this movement in the agricultural sector.

Explanation

Wilfrid Laurier’s immigration policy

  • During the Laurier government’s term in office, Canada enjoyed a period of prosperity. To further stimulate this economic growth, the government continued to pursue the Macdonald government’s immigration policy, but injected it with more resources.
  • From 1900 to 1915, some three million immigrants of many different origins settled in Canada, mainly in the Prairies.
  • Support measures were established for immigrants. They were primarily in response to medical concerns: preventing the spread of contagious diseases in Canada.

Explanation

The rise of xenophobia

  • Xenophobia is hostility or fear toward people of foreign origin. In Western Canada, the increased presence of immigrants caused growing concern among some xenophobic Canadians, who worried that their culture was threatened.
  • It was in this context that the government gradually adopted increasingly restrictive immigration measures with respect to Asian immigrants, whose cultures were very different from the European and North American cultures.

Explanation

The union movement

  • In the first decades of the 20th century, the transformations brought about by industrialization resulted in many social inequalities. The union movement continued its struggle to defend workers’ interests.
  • Unions demanded that governments legislate more often in favour of workers. Governments gradually adopted laws to regulate work.
  • Despite this labour legislation, unions’ negotiating power continued to be limited. Some unions resorted to strikes.

Explanation

The social action of the Catholic Church

  • In Québec, the total number of priests and members of religious communities increased significantly.
  • The Catholic Church played a major social role. It adopted a social doctrine to oversee unions and reduce socio-economic inequalities.
  • It participated in the creation of Catholic unions. In 1921, there were enough unions to form the Confédération des travailleurs catholiques du Canada (CTCC).

Explanation

Women’s struggles

  • At the beginning of the 20th century, the feminist movement gradually became more organized in order to raise awareness among women and encourage them to demand their legal and political rights.
  • Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie published A Treatise on Everyday Law, which sought to raise women’s awareness that their legal status was inferior to that of men.
  • The main feminist demands were:
    • greater access to education, particularly advanced studies and university
    • the right to run for elected office
    • the right to vote
    • better employment opportunities and higher wages
    • gender equality

Explanation

The rights of Francophone Catholic minorities

  • With the massive arrival of immigrants in Western Canada, Francophone communities had proportionately fewer political representatives, thereby limiting their ability to defend their rights.
  • Several laws restricted instruction in French outside Québec. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example, English was designated as the only language of instruction. In Ontario, instruction in French was limited to the first two years of elementary school.

Explanation

Clerico-nationalism

  • Clerico-nationalism was a French Canadian nationalism, supported primarily by the clergy, which considered Québec the national territory of the French Canadians.
  • Abbé Lionel Groulx was a leading spokesperson for this school of thought. He promoted the necessity of protecting the French language and Catholicism, as well as the importance of French Canadians gaining greater political autonomy in order to protect their identity. He disseminated his ideas in the magazine L’Action française, renamed L’Action nationale in 1933.
  • Conservative and traditional values as well as the rural way of life promoted by clerico-nationalists were also celebrated in French Canadian literature with the romans du terroir.

Explanation

The education system

  • At the beginning of the 20th century, the government adopted certain measures to make up for the shortcomings that existed in the Québec school system.
  • The introduction of new production processes transformed the agricultural world. There were growing needs in education to help improve agricultural practices. Specialized training was offered, and an agricultural school was founded in Oka by Trappist monks.

Explanation

Entertainment during the Roaring Twenties

  • Many Canadians wanted to leave behind the horrors of the First World War and take full advantage of the country’s economic prosperity after the war. They increased their consumption and indulged in more entertainment, including movies, restaurants, nightclubs, radio and hockey. Mass culture, destined for a wide public, developed in the 1920s.

Explanation

Economic liberalism

  • Economic liberalism is an economic theory that defends liberal practices such as the free trade of goods, freedom of action for businesspeople and limited state intervention in the economy.
  • The Liberals, in power since 1897, adopted a policy based on this liberalism. They left the exploitation of resources and industrial development to the initiative of private entreprise.
  • The government adopted measures to promote foreign investment. Investors responded favourably to these measures by contributing massively to financing sectors such as mining, pulp and paper and hydroelectricity.

Explanation

The Godbout government’s reforms

  • Adélard Godbout was the premier of Québec in 1936, and then from 1939 to 1944. The Liberal government he led did not share the conservative and traditional values of the Union nationale.
  • In addition to the reforms he embarked on to democratize and modernize Québec, Godbout proceeded with the nationalization of one of the province’s largest hydroelectric companies. In doing so, he created the new Québec Hydro-Electric Commission, known as Hydro-Québec.

Explanation

Services to citizens in urban areas

  • During the second phase of industrialization, urbanization increased rapidly. More and more citizens lived in urban areas.
  • Cities and the government adopted measures to improve quality of life for citizens:
    • investments in the construction of urban infrastructure, such as sewers and aqueducts
    • establishment of a water chlorination and filtration system
    • creation of Goutte de lait clinics
    • development of green space
    • establishment of a tramway network