Ottawa History

1855 - 1870 | 1871 - 1885 | 1886 - 1900 | 1901 - 1915 | 1916 - 1930 | 1931 - 1945 | 1946 - 1960 | 1961 - 1975 | 1976 - 1990 | 1991 - 2005

Economy
The 1930s was the era of the Great Depression. As with other Canadian cities, Ottawa struggled to administer massive social relief while at the same time maintaining existing city services. However, the growing number of civil servants in the city helped offset city revenues lost from unemployment and the federal government building projects from 1935 onward alleviated pressures felt by other Canadian cities.

The effects of the Depression on individuals and families tended to be more severe among skilled and unskilled wage labourers than professional and government employees. In Ottawa, this meant that economic disparities tended to appear along cultural lines, with the heaviest blow falling on the French-Catholic residents of Lowertown and in the Chaudière ward. The worst of the Depression in 1933 was also the coldest Canadian winter on record up to that time. In Ottawa, the thermometer hit an all-time low of -38 degrees Fahrenheit on December 29th. The average temperature for the month of February was 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. In that year, as much as 32% of the available workforce in Canada was unemployed and 1.5 million Canadians (15% of the total population) were receiving direct relief from different levels of government, mainly municipal.

Private automobiles were becoming more popular. By 1931, there were 23,000 privately-owned automobiles and 3,200 trucks in the city (Taylor, 1986, p. 146). As a result, filling stations were becoming more and more common. The Esso station presently at Wellington and Island Park is the original structure with the same art deco architecture as when it was built in 1931. In 1931, the city approved the installation of over 30 in-ground gasoline tanks for filling stations and other purposes.

With the development of automated switching in the field of telecommunications, it became possible to dial parties directly over the telephone. Prior to that, all switching was manual and connections had to be requested from the operator. It was in 1935 that direct dial telephone service began to be introduced in Ottawa (Ottawa Citizen, November 20, 1935).

On July 1st, 1942, it was announced that the Canadian labour force had been drained due to the war. Hence, it became necessary to recruit women for industrial labour to fuel the war effort (Walker, 1953, p. 81).

Communities
The redevelopment of Elgin Street and the installation of the war memorial were completed in 1938. The memorial was designed by British sculptor Vernon March who won an international competition for the design in 1926. Although March died in 1930, his brothers and sisters completed the work in 1932. Figures were put on display in England until being moved to Canada in 1937. The base and archway were completed in 1938. The landscaping was completed at the last minute in 1939 in time for the Royal Visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth in May (Van der Wetering, 1997, p. 145).

Politics
In 1932, unemployed men from the city and around the country converged on Parliament Hill to protest the lack of jobs (Ottawa Citizen, March 3, 1932). Events such as this occurred periodically throughout the Depression. Perhaps most famous is the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek from British Columbia to Ottawa.

Liberal William Lyon Mackenzie King was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1935, defeating Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden. Borden was perhaps the least-liked Prime Minister in Canadian history and was often criticized while in office for taking little action against the effects of the Depression. According to one source, while King was not known to be a man of the people, it was even less the case for his Tory rival. After being unseated as Conservative leader in 1938, Borden returned to Great Britain and severed himself from Canada completely, even specifying in his will that he was to be buried in the U.K. (Ottawa, Citizen, 2000, pp. 116-119).

Canadian and World Events
On September 10th, 1939, Canada joined Britain in declaring war on Germany and the Second World War began. Forty thousand residents of the city of Ottawa volunteered for military service over the course of the war, as well as a similar number from the surrounding region. Ottawa was also one of the first cities to set up volunteer blood donor clinics, which received over 100,000 participants during their operation (Woods 1980, p. 276).

In July of 1940, Ottawa became the top-secret repository of much of Europe’s wealth during the war. In an action known as Operation Fish, gold and securities were transferred from Europe by unmarked ship to Canada, where the securities were held in storage in Montreal, and a total of 60,000,000 ounces of gold were held in the vaults of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa on Wellington Street. The actual handling of the gold was conducted by military and RCMP personnel dressed as normal workmen (Woods, 1980, p. 272). Crews were unable to keep up with the shipments, and the amount of gold was too great for the bank to store. As a result, many crates of gold ended up lining the hallways of the Bank under round-the-clock supervision of the RCMP (Van der Wetering, 1997, p. 151).

Local Events
On January 28th, 1931, a huge sewer explosion rocked the south end of downtown at the corner of Lewis and Robert Street. The investigation revealed that the cause stemmed from a broken gas main, from which gas had escaped and permeated the soil near the source of the explosion. There was no loss of life, but there was a significant damage to the sewer system in a several-block wide area and to the properties of numerous residents and businesses.

Daylight saving time was observed for the first time in the city of Ottawa in 1931, in keeping with the practice of other cities in Canada and the national railway system.

In 1938, in order to try to deal with the problems becoming more and more apparent with the rise in car ownership, parking meters were first taken into consideration by City Council. (Ottawa Citizen, February 19, 1938).

On May 17, 1939, King George and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Ottawa for four days for the first Royal visit since 1927, and the first visit by reigning British monarchs ever (Minton, 1974). During their visit, the King and Queen laid the cornerstone for the Supreme Court Building and were present at the unveiling of the War Memorial in Confederation Square. The Royal visit was, in the opinion of many residents, the grandest occasion in the city’s history to that point. It is estimated that over 500,000 residents came out to see the Royal Couple during their visit (Woods, 1980, p. 267).

On December 30, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the Canadian Parliament, exercising his legendary oratory skills in a stirring speech. After his visit to Parliament, he was taken to the studio of Yousef Karsh, an Ottawa portrait photographer who came to be internationally recognized for his pictures.

A city-wide party broke out on May 9, 1945 with the surrender of Germany to the Allies. Three months later, the celebration began all over again with the surrender of Japan. In total, the War lasted 5 years, 8 months, and 6 days. The population of the city swelled to 149,831 by the end of the War.

Personalities
On February 11, 1940, Governor General John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir, died in office. A well-known writer, author of The 39 Steps, Buchan became Governor General in 1935 and was well-loved by Canadians. In turn, he was highly active in promoting literary and social causes in Canada (Walker, 1953, p. 80) and enticed many British celebrities to visit Canada. He was also founder of the Governor General’s Literary Award, which is still issued on an annual basis (Ottawa Citizen, 2000, p. 132).

The Dutch royal family was in exile in Ottawa during the war years. On January 19,1943, Princess Margariet was born to Dutch Princess Julianna and Prince Bernhard at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. In order to comply with the rites of succession for the Dutch crown, Princess Margariet had to be born on Dutch soil to acquire royal status. To overcome this problem, the Ottawa Civic Hospital ceded the maternity room to the Netherlands for a day, thus making succession possible. By way of thanks for this action, since the war the Dutch throne has sent an annual gift of tulip bulbs to Ottawa.

Religion/Social
Like most other Canadian cities, Ottawa found itself unprepared for the demands on social services brought on by the depression. Prior to the 1930s, municipal social services were limited to providing assistance to the aged, the ill, and to administering the police force. Unemployment was considered a private sector matter administered by volunteer organizations such as the Ottawa Welfare Bureau which quickly collapsed under the rapidly increasing demand. In order to address the issue of unemployment, the city created the Public Welfare Department to administer relief to affected families.

Direct social assistance in the form of food, clothing and cash was handled by the Public Welfare Department under Bessie Touzel. While doubtless a valuable support mechanism for many residents impoverished by the Depression, it was also strictly controlled by managers in a council whose concerns too often tended to be with the efficient administration of resources rather than the welfare of the city’s poorer residents. In his opening address of the 1921 session of council, Mayor John J. Allen announced that on the one hand. direct assistance was a more effective means of offsetting the effects of the depression, while on the other. promising to strictly control how this assistance was dispensed through the acquisition of more fraud investigators (Ottawa. Minutes of the Council of the Corporation of the City of Ottawa, 1932. January 4, 1932. pp. 12-24.). In practice, social assistance was an adversarial process and Touzel was often criticized for being too soft in her duties. When she resigned in the mid-1930s, the Public Welfare Department was closed down for good. (Taylor, Ottawa, An Illustrated History, pp. 162-164).

The Depression had a harsh effect on retailers who were hit by poor sales due to the economic climate. In order to drum up some business, Frieman’s Department Store invited professional stripper and international sensation Sally Rand to perform at the store during business hours. Apparently the idea was that of the owner’s son, Lawrence Frieman, while his father was away. The stunt nearly caused a stampede at the doors and the police had to come to disperse the crowds (Woods, 1980, p 262).

Arts/Culture
During the Depression, sports became a major part of the culture of the city. Hockey was a favourite pastime and between 1894 and 1934 when the team retired, the Ottawa Silver Seven won the Stanley Cup once. Football was also a major activity in the city (Taylor, 1986, p. 128).

In 1936, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was created and began local radio broadcasting as CBO at 920 AM. Previously, the station had been owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway as one of its three main broadcasting centres. These stations were purchased by the Government of Canada in 1933. The network offered an increasing proportion of Canadian news and entertainment between 1933 and 1936, including elections coverage and at least one show produced in Ottawa - Gene Fogarty’s Orchestra Dance broadcast from the Chateau Laurier. The public acceptance of radio, however, was gradual throughout the Depression.

By 1941, the National Film Board had become a major wartime film production agency in Canada. It was formed in 1939 to help foster the growth of the Canadian film industry.

In the fall of 1942, Carleton College was founded by Dr. Herbert Marshall Tory, then 78. Tory was also the founding president of the University of Alberta and head of the National Research Council (Woods, 1980, p. 276). The college was born of the perceived need within the city for a non-Catholic university, since the University of Ottawa was both Catholic and predominantly French. Tory was the head of the local Association for the Advancement of Learning, which ultimately founded the college. It initially offered evening classes in the Glebe Collegiate secondary school (Walker, 1953, p. 82).

Bibliography

Horn, Michael, ed. -- The dirty thirties: Canada and the Great Depression. -- Toronto : Copp Clark, 1972.
Manchee, Ellen. -- Ordinary homes for ordinary people : community and the built form in one Ottawa area, 1920 - 1939. -- Ottawa : Carleton University, 1991. -- M.A, thesis.
Taylor, John H. -- Ottawa : an Illustrated history. -- Toronto : James Lorimer & Co., 1986.
Van der Wetering, Marion -- An Ottawa album : glimpses of the way we were. -- Toronto : Hounslow Press, 1997.
Walker, Harry J. -- The Ottawa story. -- Ottawa : The Ottawa Journal. 1953.
Woods, Shirley E., Jr. -- Ottawa : the capital of Canada. -- Toronto : Doubleday Canada, 1980.