Stock market crash in Canada (1929)

After some years of steadily increasing prosperity, the stock market crash of October 1929 and a collapse in the price of natural products began to undermine the Canadian economy. The crash was a cataclysmic event, the symbolic start of the Great Depression; it was an important factor in the Canadian election of 1930. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was confident that voters would appreciate his frugal financial policy. During the election campaign he did not ignore the economic downturn but he offered caution and sound government as the appropriate response. On the other hand, Conservative leader Richard Bedford Bennett, who used radio with telling effect, talked of an economic crisis and promised dramatic measures, including the use of tariffs. On the prairies, where wheat prices had dropped sharply, and in Quebec, where dairy farmers wanted protection against New Zealand butter, Bennett’s appeal swung enough votes to give the Conservatives a majority.