Bennett’s New Deal

In 1935 the Conservatives under Richard Bedford Bennett passed New Deal legislation that included employment and social insurance as well as regulations governing minimum wages and hours of labour. The Great Depression of the 1930s had severely tried Canada’s political and economic institutions, and only the federal government appeared to have the resources to deal with the burden of welfare and reconstruction. The New Deal, promising federal government intervention to achieve social and economic reform, did mean an expansion of the federal government’s role. Many proposals infringed on provincial jurisdiction and were struck down as unconstitutional.