The Great Repression of the 1930s

I am currently reading Pierre Berton’s The Great Depression 1929-1939. Candidly, when I read it, I am ashamed of my country. Not because of Berton, who is a superb story teller, but because of what happened here in Canada. Yes, I know that the split personality Prime Minister Richard Bennett is dead, and so is that double talking weirdo, William Lyon MacKenzie King. I get that the victims are almost all dead too. And I get that I had nothing to do with the great repression perpetrated by all levels of governments of this country. Yet somehow and for some reason, I am ashamed. A bit angry too.

I had some sense of that period, but nothing like Berton’s revelations. I recall an aunt telling me how she remembered her mother (my grandmother) crying because she had nothing to feed the children, but I had no idea that governments were ignoring the problem, blaming people for being unemployed, and were even arresting people for not having jobs. The conduct of politicians was atrocious, as they sought to cover their reputations and to avoid taxing the rich to provide funds to purchase food that was otherwise rotting at the source because it was too costly for growers to ship it to market in the face of plummeted prices. Anything else I could say about the behavior of our then Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition, plus premiers and mayors, has already been said about acne, so just read the book.