The Roaring Twenties

New Prosperity = New Fads

• People bought cars and radios, went to movies

• Fads from US spread to Canada• College students swallowed live

goldfish, six day bicycle races• Dances known as the Charleston,

Shimmy, Turkey Trot

Fashion

• Tourists from US brought new fahsion trends

• Men: straw hats, form fitting double breasted suits

• Women: “flapper” look• “bobbed” hair• Knee hemlines• Silk stocking• Dresses the promoted the flat chested look

Mobility

• The automobile changed the landscape• Invention of assembly line in 1913 by

Henry Ford meant that cards could be mass produced inexpensively and quickly

• Automobile cost less than $300• Most of road ran south to US closer

relations (changed from left hand driving to right hand driving)

• First drive through restaurant – White Spot in Vancouver

Mobility (cont.)

• Aviation expanded• Veteran pilots became “bus plots”• Aerial mineral exploration• Daring mission by Wilfred “Wop”

May, the WWI Canadian flying ace May and fellow pilot Vic Horner volunteered to deliver an antitoxins to treat diphtheria outbreak in Alberta

Group of Seven

• 7 painters in tune with the new post-war national confidence

• In tune with new post-war national confidence

• Interpret Canada's rugged landscape: broad, bold brilliant colours

Group of Seven

Emily Carr

• From Victoria• Best known painter• Influenced by the Group of Seven

Work byEmily Carr

The Lost Generation

• During the 1920's a group of writers known as "The Lost Generation" gained popularity

• The term "the lost generation" was coined by Gertrude Stein

• three best known writers among The Lost Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos

• defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s

Sports

• Thirst for entertainment led to interest• Baseball popular• Boxing, rugby, golf• Hockey came into homes in 1923• Percy Williams won two gold medals at 1928

Olympics in sprinting events• Ethel Cartherwood, won gold medal in high jump• Hockey team won gold medals• Charles Gorman – seven world speed skating

records• Jeff Myles new record for Boston Marathon

Role of Women

• 1921 only five women ran for office• Agnes MacPhail was the only one who

won• Only woman in H of C until 1935• Principal role of women were wives and

mothers• New labour saving devices: refrigerator,

vacuum, washing machine, iron, became more affordable but meant that there were higher standards of cleaning

Role of Women (cont.)

• Married women stayed at home• Single women had limited careers

• Nursing and teaching• Paid poorly

• Businesses: secretaries, telephone operators, sales clerks

• Few were doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers

Person’s Case

• 1929• Emily Murphy, suffragist appointed

magistrate in Alberta• Appointment was challenged on the

basis that only “persons” could hold this office under the BNA Act

• Women were not “persons”• Supreme Court of Alberta rules in

Murphy’s favour

Person’s Case

• Murphy and four other women known as the “Famous Five” challenged PM King to appoint a woman senator

• In April 1928, Supreme Court Canada, decided that women were not persons

• Famous Five appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

• October 18, 1929, Judicial Committee declared support for women.

Aboriginals

• Were not classified as “persons”• Could not vote in provincial or

federal election• BC not until 1949 could Aboriginals

vote• Not until 1960 Aboriginals could

vote in federal elections

Reserves and Residential Schools

• Social and economic conditions were poor

• Residential schools difficult• Traumatized by the separation from

their family• Physical and emotional abuse• Replace traditional or family leaders

with graduates of residential schools

Aboriginals Fight Back

• Early 1920’s Aboriginal people in BC challenged the government on

1. Pot latch ceremony• Important cultural ceremony among

certain peoples of the Pacific Coast• Significant events (births, deaths,

marriages) recorded• Missionaries and government saw it as

an obstacle to assimilation• Forbidden until 1884

Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)

2. Land Claims• Aka Aboriginal Title• BC was unique in Canada in that only a few First

Nations on Van Island had negotiated land treaties

• Most of the land in province was not signed away to the government

• Large tracts of land set aside as reserves for people, federal government been taking land from reserves without the consent of Aboriginal bands known as cut off lands

Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)

3. Cut off lands- Aboriginals leaders wanted their claims to the land to be recognizes- 1906: Joe Capilano, chief of Squamish people, made journey to London to present petition to the King- Allied Tribes of BC, organization made up seven tribes, appealed the federal government’s actions

Aboriginals Fight Back (cont.)

- claimed the removal acts contrary to Indian Act which regulated relations between the federal government and Aboriginal peoples- government changed act so consent was not needed

African-Canadians

• Racial segregation was practices and supported by Supreme courts

• 1921: Supreme Court of Quebec ruled in favour of racially segregated seating in Montreal theaters

• 1929: blacks from the World Baptist Convention were denied hotel rooms

• There was tolerance:• 1919: Brotherhood of Railway Workers accepted

black porters as members• 1924: Edmonton City Council refused to support

the ban of blacks from public parks and swimming pools.

Immigrants

• War increased tensions between immigrants and Canadians

• Russian and eastern Europe immigrants were often accused of being socialist revolutionaries, and the government was constantly petitioned to deport them.

• Government adopted immigration restrictions, giving preference to applicant from Britain and US

• Others didn’t want immigration because immigrants could work for low wages

End of the Roaring 1920’s

• Prosperity came to a crash on• October 29, 1929: NYSE

crashed• More than 23 million shared

changed hands, prices fell• Lead to the Depression