From World War to Depression

Even as reform was gaining impetus, the economic boom ran its course. By 1912 those with capital were pulling back in the realization that much of the dynamism was little more than the rhetoric of boosterism. The political situation in Europe was deteriorating, culminating in Britain's declaration of war against Germany in Aug 1914. The war affected everyone as patriotism became the order of the day. BC had the highest per capita volunteer rate in Canada at just over 90 per 1,000 population. The province's uneven sex ratio played a role, as did its renewed British ethos. British Columbians of every background volunteered for service, including members of the province's aboriginal, Japanese and Sikh communities, and they all contributed to the successful conclusion of the war in 1918. It was during the war that McBride's premiership finally ended. A combination of factors, ranging from his ill health to charges of patronage and corruption, brought his resignation at the end of 1915. Within months his successor went down to defeat by the Liberals, which then governed for 12 years. The most significant of the 3 Liberal premiers was John Oliver, who held office from 1918 to his death in Aug 1927. Oliver's long tenure rested as much on internal dissension within the opposition Conservatives as it did on his image as a self-made sage. In 1922 a right-wing splinter group led by Vancouver businessmen joined with dissatisfied farmers to attempt a return to the older coalition style of politics. Their choice of name, the Provincial Party, pointed up their dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties, which they viewed as a federal imposition. The change in ruling parties from Conservative to Liberal worked to the advantage of social reformers. The patriotism unleashed by the war led to women being given the right to vote in Manitoba in 1915, and the other prairie provinces followed in short order. The provincial Liberals made Prohibition and suffrage part of their successful 1916 election campaign. The ballot included referendums on both issues, which were approved. Legislation soon followed to prohibit the sale of liquor and to give women the right to vote provincially and to be elected to the legislature. The first female MLA was Mary Ellen Smith, who in 1918 ran in a Vancouver by-election to succeed her late husband. World War I also set the stage for what in retrospect can be seen as the culmination of labour's thrust of the previous two decades. Unrest became widespread, particularly after the federal government enacted conscription legislation in 1917. The concept of One Big Union, a single organization of all workers, was gaining appeal even as a general strike broke out in Winnipeg in May 1919. Support was widespread for both initiatives across BC, but neither succeeded. Within the year it became clear to most observers that the brute power of the state in support of capitalism was superior to that which could be marshalled by workers, even under favourable conditions. Trade unions continued to exist across BC but the movement as a whole became fragmented by issues of personality and race. The limits to reform of the workplace were paralleled in social activism in the case of Prohibition. The law was openly flouted, and in 1920 a Prohibition plebiscite passed. The first English-Canadian province to repeal Prohibition, BC became the source of much of the liquor smuggled illegally into the US before it too finally repealed its legislation in 1933. On the other hand, the Liberal government had caught the reform mood and enacted a spate of legislation that created a civil service, initiated workmen's compensation, provided for neglected children, gave pensions to needy mothers, established public libraries and expanded public schooling. The limit to reform, in or out of the workplace, was its equation with the dominant society to the almost total disregard of aboriginal and other non-white British Columbians.

The war's end in 1918 did not return BC to its earlier economic self-confidence, but rather heralded a recession across the western world that only lifted in 1923. BC's considerable growth during the remainder of the decade built on existing strands in the province's development. International demand for staples, particularly lumber and minerals, once again set the pace. The Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, made Vancouver an important transshipment point for a wide range of commodities. These included not only products from BC but also prairie grain previously sent east by the CPR. By the end of the decade, fully 40% of Canada's grain exports were going through Vancouver. BC's economy still depended on the vagaries of international markets, which collapsed following the stock market crash of Oct 1929. What first appeared to be only another recession soon became a full-blown depression. The phenomenon had world-wide causes and consequences, but that in no way diminished the effect on individual British Columbians. Every component of the economy moved down. Net value of production fell by almost 60%. So did exports of Canadian products from BC, including prairie grain. Almost all wages fell. Vancouver was hard hit, in particular elderly people and residents of modest means. Initially provincial politicians seemed unable to grasp the seriousness of the Depression. The Conservatives returned to power in 1928, due not as much to their better policies as to the force of personality. Simon Fraser Tolmie, like his predecessor Richard McBride, had strong roots in BC. Descended from HBC fur traders, he had been an MP and federal minister of agriculture. The Conservatives promised "the application of business principles to the business of government," which rebounded to their disadvantage once the Depression hit. By 1931, when unemployment reached 28%, the highest in Canada, Tolmie was finally forced to act. relief camps were set up, mostly at remote locations safely out of sight of the general populace, where single unemployed males built roads and other public facilities in exchange for room, board and a small cash payment. The next year the federal government took over the relief camps, which eventually housed 8,000 men in over 200 camps. The Conservative party became entrapped by its commitment to "business principles." In 1931 Tolmie acceded to the request of a deputation of Vancouver businessmen that he establish a committee to propose solutions to the increasingly desperate financial situation. The Kidd Report, issued in 1932, recommended such sharp cuts to social services that mainstream British Columbians were enraged. They had come to expect more from their provincial government than its traditional functions of maintaining law and order, providing physical infrastructure and encouraging private enterprise. The growing sentiment in favour of more government was reflected at the national level, when in 1932 a new political party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, was established. The CCF brought together reformist strands in Canadian society with the goal of forming a socialist government by democratic means.

The next provincial election in 1933 was won handily by the Liberals, who captured 42% of the vote. The principal opposition came from the newly formed CCF with fully 32% of the vote. It was once again the force of personality that made the difference. The new premier was Duff Pattullo. As well as having a strong hinterland base as a Prince Rupert businessman and mayor, Pattullo exuded self-confidence. The Liberal Party, long identified with social reform, now also committed itself to a more activist role for the state in dealing with social inequalities and unbridled capitalism. The CCF's shadow may have spurred on the enactment of legislation reforming taxation, restoring social programs and initiating public works. Pattullo's background led him to look northward at the immense area of the province that was still largely an aboriginal preserve, in the hopes of initiating economic development. Depressed conditions persisted, intensified in BC by unemployed men from across Canada who drifted west in the belief that at least they would not freeze to death. Often "riding the rails," they tended to congregate in "jungles," communities along the tracks, and repeatedly protested their circumstances. So did men dissatisfied with their lot in the relief camps, who were prone to march through Vancouver. In the spring of 1935, after getting no federal government response to their demands, unemployed men began a mass trek to Ottawa. The On-to-Ottawa Trek, by then 25,000 men strong, was halted in Regina, where a riot ensued after negotiations broke down. These events finally persuaded the federal government to act. Nonetheless, numbers of unemployed grew in BC, and after the provincial government in desperation restricted relief to all but provincial residents, confrontation ensued on 19 June 1938, Bloody Sunday, when about 1,000 jobless men occupying the Vancouver post office were forcibly evacuated. Pattullo increasingly came to believe that the province could only do so much and, like his predecessor Richard McBride, increasingly spoke out for "better terms" with the federal government. Federal acknowledgment of regional disparities came with the 1937 appointment of a Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (the Rowell-Sirois Commission). Pattullo informed the commission in no uncertain terms that in 1938 "approximately 80% of the manufactured commodities imported into the Province of British Columbia is imported from Eastern Canada, while approximately 75% of our main primary products, apart from agriculture is sold in open competition in the world markets." Concluding in 1940 that disparities did exist, the commission recommended that the federal government exercise greater authority in relationship to the provinces. BC and some other provinces expressed their opposition, but by then World War II had intervened to postpone the debate.