The Dirty Thirties Essay Example for Free

The Dirty Thirties Essay I have chosen the years of 1930 to 1940 as one of the most significant decades in Canadian history. I believe this because it might have been one of the hardest decades to live in. Reasons being that we had suffered greatly by the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash and the enormous 1928 wheat crop crash Canadians were barely making any money or just not having anywhere to work because the demand was very very low. Food was running out and the average working Canadian was making less than $1000 a year! The Federal Department of Labor had said that familys needed between $1200 and $1500 a year to maintain the minimum standard of decency. It was a very depressing time, most familys had retreated to farms where they could grow their own food and barely sustain a low quality of living. Being that an estimated 33% Canada’s gross income had been coming from exports the whole country was suffering. This caused many workers to be laid off and the ones that hadn’t been, their salarys were cut down to a fraction of what they had been getting before. Tens of thousands of people had been totally dependent on government relief, which was greatly affecting Canada’s infrastructure. The depression slowly came to end when the war had been announced. There was a great demand for men to become soilders and support the war effort. More and more young men had started lining up outside military recruitment facilities, most of them trying to make their first dollars! The depression had taken its toll, and forced lots of men to join the war effort due to the simple fact that this was the only way to make money at the time witch is pretty sad when you come to think about it. But this wasn’t the end of the depression, it had whent on after the 1940s. Ammunition, supplies, equipment, and weapons had grown in great demand. With less and less men being around due to leaving for the service many woman had replaced men in the work field. Later on getting names like â€Å"Rosie the Rivetor. †