Economic+Boom

Tony's summary

media type="file" key="Economic Boom.mp3" width="240" height="20" Canada's Economic Boom

Just as the population was increasing, so was the Canadian economy. It was much healthier in the 1950s than it had been 20 years before. The following chart compares the economies of the 1930s and the 1950s. Canada's Economy, 1930s and 1950s. Why had Canada's economy improved since the war?

1930s:
 * Severe drought destroyed the crop and grazing lands of western Canada
 * Few jobs available
 * Varied working conditions (based on the attitude of the boss)
 * Low wages
 * Prairie farmers left windblown lands

1950s:
 * Major resource discoveries such as oil, gas, nickel, and uranium
 * Many jobs available
 * Improved working conditions (more unionized labour)
 * Rising wages
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Families moved to the Prairies and Canadian Shield

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The new economy was built on natural resources ranging from oil in the West to iron ore in the East. In 1953 Alberta seemed to be balanced between its past and anew future. Bob DesRivieres describes his experiences in Alberta during this time:

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">"It was tough finding a good job in Ottawa after the war. Sherritt-Gordon Miner, opened a nickel processing plant at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, so many families drove West to get jobs. We left in October, 1953. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Moving to Alberta war, like pioneering. Our houses weren't ready yet, so we spent the winter in cabins at Elk Island National Park. There war, no insulation and an oil stove barely heated our place. Buffalo sometimes stared into our windows! We were really roughing it that winter." <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Bob DesRivieres, 2005

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Industrial Growth

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Development of mineral wealth quickly spread through the economy. For example, as the output of iron ore in Wabush and Carol Lake, Newfoundland, increased, it went to steel mills in Hamilton to be refined and then manufactured into cars and trucks. Likewise, the oil and natural gas wealth of western Canada affected industrial production in Ontario.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">American Ownership <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Much of Canada's post-war economic growth was financed by foreign investment - money from outside the country used to earn a profit here. The Liberal governments of Mackenzie King and his successor Louis St. Laurent encouraged American investment. Between 1920 and 1950 American investment had grown from 44 to 76 percent of total foreign investment in Canada. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">In 1956 the government appointed the Royal Commission on Economic Prospects. It made several recommendations for Canada's growth. One was key: the government should limit foreign ownership to keep control of its own economy. At that time, though, Canadians welcomed the jobs that foreign investment created. The report gathered dust for the next 10 years before the issue came up again.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Percentage American Ownership of the Canadian Economy, 1926 and 1957. Which parts of the economy attracted increased investment from the United States between 1926 and 1957?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: Oil and Gas <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: not available <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 58

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: Mining and Smelting <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: 28 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 46

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: Manufacturing <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: 30 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 39

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: All Industry and Retail <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: 35 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 27

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: Railroads <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: 15 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 11

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Economic Sector: Other Utilities <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1926: 23 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">U.S. Owned, 1957: 12

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Source: Ian Lumsden, Close the 49th Parallel: The Americanization of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970), p. 24.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Task

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. What sector saw the greatest growth in US ownership?

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. Discuss why most Canadians weren't concerned about foreign investment in 1956. Do you think most Canadians feel the same way today? Why or why not?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Effects of Economic Growth on Everyday Life

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Rising wages and population growth unleashed a spending spree in the 1950s. Disposable income - the money left after basics like food, clothing, and shelter are paid for - increased by 43 percent between 1945 and 1959. More families had money for cars, TVs, appliances, furniture, figure skates, and hockey equipment. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">A new automobile was the most desired consumer product of all. Vehicles were not only essential transportation, but status symbols as well. To entice people to buy new cars more often, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler introduced new designs and colours every two years during the 1950s. During this era, cars grew longer, lower, wider, and more powerful. Gasoline cost only about eight cents per litre, so no one worried if they used a lot of fuel. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The popularity of cars shaped the communities of the 1950s. Few new houses had been built in Canada since the prosperous 1920s, but a growing population and a reviving economy kick-started housing construction. The suburbs - the communities beyond the old community core - emerged. Many suburbs grew haphazardly, and lacked services like schools and shopping. But residents could use the family car to get to work and to the new shopping malls that developed in the late 1950s.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Task

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3. List the factors that led to the development of post-war suburbs. Expand on each point by using an example.

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">4. a) What's meant by the term "disposable income"? <span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">b) How is what disposable income was spent on in the 50's similar to today? How is it different?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Spread of Television

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Another big influence on life in the post-war era was television. Only a few Canadian families could afford black-and-white televisions in the early 1950s, but over time, mass production made them fairly cheap and widely owned. Television quickly began to change family life. Children took to TV immediately, often rushing home after school to watch American-made cartoons and adventure series. A 1952 survey by the Toronto Women Teachers Association expressed concern that kids were watching 25 to 30 hours a week. There were very few channels, and little need for parental controls. It was common for the whole family to watch television together after supper. Most of the popular family sitcoms were produced in the United States and shown either on American channels available in Canada or on Canadian channels that purchased them. CBC Television offered more dramatic, educational, and artistic programming, along with Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday evenings.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">TIMELINE: The Growth of Television In Canada

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1946: The first American TV stations begin broadcasting

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1951: About 35 000 Canadians have televisions, all tuned to U.S. networks

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1952: CBC-TV (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) begins programming

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1956: More than half of all Canadian homes have a television set

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1959: Very few Canadian families own a colour television set because of its high price and the lack of programming

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Family Life

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Have you ever heard of the Cleavers: Ward, June, Wally, and Clarence ("the Beav")? In Leave It to Beaver, they were the perfect television family, competing for ratings with other similar shows. These American shows all projected a happy stereotype of 50s family life. A stereotype is a generalized mental image of a place, time, or social group that doesn't always match reality. In this case the stereotypical family consisted of a White married couple with a father working to support the family, and a mother who stayed at home baking cookies and looking after polite, obedient children.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Role of Women in the Post-war Era

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Though women handled all types of work during the war, most gave up their non-traditional jobs to returning servicemen. Some women continued as teachers, hospital workers, and sales clerks, but very few married women held jobs outside the home. For one thing, day care was generally available only from relatives. But more important was the social pressure for women to stay home that came from their husbands, who didn't want people to think they couldn't support their families.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Suburban women often felt the need to break out of the tight grip of family life. Their limited outlets included gathering for coffee and card parties and volunteering in neighbourhood schools and places of worship. Some women weren't happy with this confined role.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Teenagers

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The prosperity of the 1950s helped create a new population group - teenagers. Their spending allowances and part-time jobs gave them the buying power to satisfy their own tastes. Girls often wore their hair in a ponytail, and many guys used plenty of hair cream to comb their hair back in the so-called "greaser" style.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">In music, rock 'n' roll developed in the United States in the early 1950s and quickly spread to Canada. Since many adults disapproved of the beat and the lyrics, the music became a symbol of teenagers' growing independence. Elvis Presley was the king of rock 'n' roll. In 1957 about 24 000 screaming teenagers filled Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto for two of his shows. Some adults were shocked by Presley's suggestive gyrations on stage. Of course, this made Presley even more popular with his fans. One successful Canadian performer was Paul Anka. Though his songs were more pop than rock 'n' roll, they were top sellers in both Canada and the United States.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">- In 1955 there were 1.6 million Canadians between the ages of 15 and 19.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">- About 70 percent of these teenagers had their own bank account.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">- As a group, they spent about $100 million per year.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">- As a group, they bought more than 4 million music records per year.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Task

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">5. a) Why were some women unhappy with their role in the 1950s?

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">b) Compare women's role in the 1950s with their role today.

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">6. a) What similarities and differences do you see between Canadian teenagers in the 1950s and those of today?

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">b) How important do you think music is in reflecting teenagers' independence today? Explain.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">A Time for Nation Building

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The period after World War II was a time of nation building. The government of Canada invested in major social systems. The nation also expanded as Newfoundland entered Confederation.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Government Social Investments

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Great Depression taught Canada that governments must play a stronger role in supporting people's lives. And so, after 1939, a series of social security programs were introduced to help people who are unemployed, elderly people, youth, and children. These measures were further increased during the 1960s (see Chapter 11). The result was the "cradle to the grave" network of social services which help to support the quality of life that we enjoy in Canada today.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Canada's Social Security Programs, 1940-1960. Why are these programs called a social "safety net"?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1940 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Social Security Program: Unemployment Insurance. Both workers and their employers contributed to this insurance plan, which paid unemployed workers while they were looking for new jobs.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1944 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Social Security Program: Family Allowance Benefits. Better known as the "baby bonus," these monthly benefits were paid for basic food and clothing for each child in the family. Every family was eligible.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1952 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Social Security Program: Old Age Security. This plan improved upon the 1927 Old Age Pension by extending it to all Canadians aged 70 or older. The payment was also increased to $40 per month, and didn't have to be repaid.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1948, 1957 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Social Security Program: Canada Hospital Insurance Plan. The federal government first gave the provinces money for health care in 1948. Payments were increased to cover about half of the provinces' health care costs in 1957.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Task

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">7. How do you think the social safety net contributed to Canadian identity?

<span style="background-color: #d4d3d3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">8. If these programs were taken away by the Canadian government today, how do you think people would react?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">During 2004-2005, CBC-TV held a nationwide contest in which the Canadian public was asked to vote for "The Greatest Canadian." The winner was a man previously unknown to many people but highly respected by others for his important contributions to social security in Canada.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Tommy Douglas (1904-1986) is known as the father of Canadian medicare, that is, government hospital insurance.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Douglas was born in 1904 and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When he was 10 he experienced a serious bone infection in his knee. Since his parents couldn't afford the operation, doctors were ready to amputate his leg so that the infection wouldn't spread. But then a visiting surgeon offered to operate for free, and saved the boy's leg. Later, Tommy Douglas said that this incident inspired his dream for accessible medical care for all.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">After training as a minister, Douglas moved to Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The Great Depression hit that province especially hard, and Douglas was determined to help the province's people. In 1935 he was elected to Parliament. Nine years later he left federal politics and was elected premier of Saskatchewan, a position he held from 1944 to 1961.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">During those years, his government put Saskatchewan back on its feet with social and economic programs to improve the quality of life there. Most important, in 1947 Premier Douglas introduced Canada's first government-sponsored health care plan. Then, in 1961, this limited plan was expanded to full medicare, with complete medical and hospital care for everyone in the province. By 1966 Lester Pearson's federal Liberals had extended this popular program to the entire country.