History
January 07, 2014
Did the 1920’s roar?

In the 1920’s, Canada definitely had a time of change and excitement as a country and for its citizens. There were a lot of positives and negatives in that time which lead some people to believe whether or not it really does hold up the reputation for being called the roaring twenties. It was only really prosperous and a time of good change for the white citizens so the three reasons as to why the twenties did not roar are because of how the workers, Chinese immigrants and First Nations were treated. Workers ranging from miners, fishers, and farmers went on strikes in the 1920’s because their pay were being cut very low. Having that happen to them and also having to pay the same amount of taxes as everyone else, it was not far at all. Many big strikes occurred because of this so their families and themselves went through periods of starvation times when without payment. They also had the most labour intensifying jobs yet they still had the lowest wages. Some unfortunate workers even lost their jobs after going on strike and the government were not treating them fairly or correctly, which is one reason why the 20’s did not roar. Chinese immigrants were a big help to Canada when building the Canadian Pacific Railway back in the 1880’s. The government treated them poorly and did not keep their promise of sending them back home to China. In the 1920’s, despite all of their hard work and lives spent in the development of Canada, the white people and government were still very racist and discriminative towards them. So finally in 1923, the Canadian government passed a law where they prohibited Chinese immigrants to live in Canada, but if they did want to there would be a fine of extra tax. The law lasted for 24 years when it finally hit them how much of an important influence they had on Canada and how they should be allowed to have more rights. During that time the Canadian government and white citizens still treated them horribly by adding that law which caused the 1920’s to not roar. The First Nations had their way of life changed just because the Canadian government and basically everyone else who was not of native culture thought it would be better. The government created residential schools to convert native children to Christians because they were racist and simpleminded. Only the children went to