Canada in the

1920s:
Culture and Society

Modern mindset
In

the aftermath of WWI there was

growing skepticism with Christianity and
less faith in traditions but a movement
towards the individual and pleasures

Modern Mindset
There

was more of an emphasis on

education

Families delayed their childrens entrance

into the workforce as long as they could
Adult education programs developed

Frontier

college

Leisure and Domestic Culture

Canada

experienced revolutions in
communication and entertainment:
Telephones

with party lines

Radios with programmes designed to
accompany advertisements
Hollywood Movies all classes
Not

total US domination of
culture

Respectability
The

difficulties of settling back into

peacetime domestic life were
accompanied by a turn towards new
modern values

Church

leaders were upset by the

hedonism, violence and secular values
of modern society

Where did they come from?

Freedoms

from working
outside the home, success
with voting rights, greater
mobility, technological
innovation and disposable
income

Particularly

for women,
personal fulfillment and
independence became
priorities and they had a
more modern, carefree spirit
where anything seemed
possible

Respectability
Traditionalists

sought to reaffirm longstanding moral conventions

Intimacy was acceptable only if it was

heterosexual, confined to marriage and
not engaged in too frequently

Women

risked their reputations if they

became available flappers

Moral families
During

the interwar years families could

(successfully) petition courts to have
promiscuous daughters confined to
mental institutions or reformatories

Baby

buying coerce/force unmarried

women to give up their babies which
were put for adoption

Respectability
Tied

to how women maintained their

homes and attended to their husbands
needs and to men being good providers
who earned enough wages to live
decently

Often middle class youth adopted a livefast, love hard, die-young philosophy their
parents associated with the working class
while working class people were desperate
to be seen as respectable

Identity Through the Arts:

Writing
In

1921 there was the

creation of the Canadian
Authors Association

Themes of relationships between men

and women, repression of women and
psychological blackmail, the Prairies

Identity Through the Arts:

Painting

Group of Seven came together specifically to

demonstrate the spirit of painting in Canada

They wanted to create a Canadian artistic style

Original members were

Franklin Carmichael
Lawren Harris
A.Y. Jackson
Frank Johnston
Arthur Lismer
J.E.H. MacDonald
Frederick Varley

Old Pine, McGregor Bay

Arthur Lismer

Autumn in the Northland by

Franklin Carmichael

Coldwell Bay North of Lake Superior

Lawren Harris

Lake Superior
Lawren Harris

Emily Carr
Emily

Carr B.C.s beloved artist was

connected to the Group of Seven

In

fact were it not for the Group of Seven

she may not have become the B.C. icon
that she is today

The style was

Nature

based and contributed to a

nature-based nationalism

Romanticizing the past

During

the1920s there was a trend to

look backward and an increasing
identity based on imagining golden
ages in Canadian history
Cult

of the folk sold well to tourists

(Peggys cove, bag piper at the border, the
Bluenose)
Rural values of the past that were slipping
away were idealized

Readings and questions

1-3

on page 66
Read 67-71 and complete questions 1-4
At

11:15 we will finish The Dark

Crystal

Aboriginal Issues
Still

not considered persons under law

and did not have the right to vote (1949
BC, 1960 fed)

Government

Goal: Assimilation

Residential schools peaked in the 1920s

and 30s
Potlatch ban vigorously enforced after
WWI (Pacific Coast)

Land
Land taken from reserves without the consent of the Aboriginal

Cut-off lands

group concerned

Aboriginal Title

Allied Tribes of BC

Claims to land historically inhabited, ancestral lands

appealed the federal governments actions, citing contraventions

to the Indian Act, also argued for treaties in BC

The federal government of Canada changed the Indian Act

to allow the transfer of reserve lands to the federal
government without the consent of Aboriginal people
involved.

Ethnicity and Immigration

Racial

segregation was openly practiced in

Canada

The

government began to restrict immigration

from non-preferred countries
Preferred

being the US and Britain

July 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act

replaced

the head tax on Chinese immigrants and

effectively barred Chinese immigration into Canada