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← Unit 3: Canada, 1929–1945

CHC2D · Unit 3 test review

Canada, 1929–1945: Test Review

Everything for the Unit 3 test on one page: the key facts from all 8 lessons, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a practice test that points you back to the lessons you need.

Key facts

The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada

  • The Great Depression lasted roughly from 1929 until the Second World War; the stock market crash of October 1929 (Black Tuesday, October 29) was the trigger.
  • Long-term causes: overproduction, buying on credit and on margin, and Canada's dependence on exporting a few staples such as wheat.
  • Aggravating factors: high tariffs, especially the US Smoot–Hawley Tariff (1930), and drought on the Prairies (the Dirty Thirties).
  • Between 1929 and 1933 Canada's gross national expenditure fell by about 42 per cent; by 1933 an estimated 19 to 30 per cent of the labour force was unemployed, depending on how it is measured.
  • The Prairies, especially Saskatchewan, were hit hardest; single men, immigrants, women and Indigenous communities also faced particular hardship.

Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions

  • King's "five-cent piece" remark (April 1930) helped R. B. Bennett's Conservatives win the July 28, 1930 election.
  • Federal relief camps (October 1932–June 1936) paid single men 20 cents a day; their protest became the On-to-Ottawa Trek (from June 3, 1935), stopped by the Regina Riot on July 1, 1935.
  • Bennett's New Deal (radio broadcasts, January 1935) promised unemployment insurance, a minimum wage and work-hour limits; most of it was struck down in 1937 as provincial jurisdiction.
  • New parties: the CCF (1932, Regina Manifesto 1933, J. S. Woodsworth), Social Credit (Alberta, 1935, William Aberhart) and the Union Nationale (Quebec, 1936, Maurice Duplessis).
  • Lasting institutions: Bank of Canada (1935), Canadian Wheat Board (1935), CBC (1936), unemployment insurance (1940).

Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor

  • Communism under Stalin (USSR), fascism (Mussolini's Italy, from 1922) and Nazism (Hitler, chancellor January 30, 1933) were all totalitarian: one party, secret police, propaganda, no free elections and persecution of scapegoated groups.
  • In Canada, Adrien Arcand founded the fascist National Social Christian Party (1934) and the National Unity Party (1938); he was interned in 1940.
  • The Christie Pits riot (Toronto, August 16, 1933) began when a swastika banner was unfurled at a game involving a mostly Jewish team; fighting lasted about six hours.
  • The Holodomor (1932–1933) was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine caused by Stalin's policies; it killed millions (demographers estimate about 3.9 million).
  • Canada's Parliament recognized the Holodomor as genocide in 2008; Holodomor Memorial Day is the fourth Saturday in November.

Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response

  • The Holocaust (Shoah) was Nazi Germany's systematic persecution and murder of about six million Jews, about two-thirds of Europe's Jews, from 1933 to 1945.
  • Steps toward genocide: Nazi takeover (1933), Nuremberg Laws (1935), Kristallnacht (November 9–10, 1938), ghettos and mass shootings, Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942), killing centres; Auschwitz liberated January 27, 1945.
  • Canada admitted fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees from 1933 to 1945 (Abella and Troper, None Is Too Many); immigration director F. C. Blair strongly opposed Jewish immigration.
  • In June 1939 Canada refused the MS St. Louis; 254 of its passengers were later murdered. Canada apologized on November 7, 2018.
  • Canadian troops liberated Westerbork (April 12, 1945); about 35,000 to 40,000 survivors later settled in Canada; John Humphrey drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
  • Antisemitism continues: in 2024 police-reported data, Jewish people were the group most often targeted by hate crimes in Canada.

The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry

  • Long-term causes of WWII: the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, aggressive dictatorships (Italy, Germany, Japan), a weak League of Nations, and appeasement and isolationism.
  • Key acts of aggression: Manchuria (1931), Ethiopia (1935), the Rhineland (1936), the Anschluss (March 1938), the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement (September 1938), Czechoslovakia (March 1939), Poland (September 1, 1939).
  • The Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 23, 1939) cleared the way for Germany's invasion of Poland.
  • Because of the Statute of Westminster (1931), Canada made its own declaration of war on September 10, 1939, one week after Britain.
  • The Ogdensburg Agreement (August 18, 1940) and Hyde Park Declaration (April 20, 1941) tied Canada's defence and war economy more closely to the United States.

Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands

  • More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the Second World War; more than 45,000 died.
  • The BCATP (from December 1939) trained more than 130,000 Allied aircrew in Canada, more than half of them Canadians.
  • In the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) the RCN grew from 13 ships to about 400, escorting convoys; more than 1,600 Canadian and Newfoundland merchant mariners were killed.
  • Hong Kong (December 1941): 1,975 Canadians, about 554 died in battle or as prisoners. Dieppe (August 19, 1942): 916 Canadians killed, nearly 1,950 captured.
  • Italy (1943–1945, Ortona December 1943), D-Day at Juno Beach (June 6, 1944, 359 killed), the Scheldt (fall 1944) and the liberation of the Netherlands (German surrender there May 5, 1945; more than 7,600 Canadian deaths).

The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment

  • Total war means mobilizing all of a country's people and resources; C. D. Howe directed war production, and the Wartime Prices and Trade Board controlled prices and wages.
  • Rationing began in 1942; Victory Bond campaigns raised about 12 billion dollars; Canada's GNP roughly doubled from 1939 to 1945.
  • Women in paid work roughly doubled (about 600,000 to 1.2 million, 1939–1944); about 50,000 women served in uniform, in the CWAC, RCAF Women's Division and WRCNS and as nursing sisters.
  • NRMA (June 21, 1940): home-defence conscription. Plebiscite (April 27, 1942): about 65 per cent yes nationally, about 73 per cent no in Quebec. November 1944: 16,000 conscripts ordered overseas.
  • About 22,000 Japanese Canadians were uprooted from the BC coast from February 1942; their property was sold from 1943; restrictions lasted until April 1, 1949; redress came September 22, 1988.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945

  • First Nations, Métis and Inuit were governed by different policies: the Indian Act and residential schools (80 operating in 1931); Alberta's Métis Population Betterment Act (1938); Inuit placed under federal responsibility (Re Eskimos, 1939) and given disc numbers (from 1941).
  • The Dominion Franchise Act (1934) barred Inuit and First Nations people living on reserves from federal voting, except some veterans; Inuit won the vote in 1950 and all status First Nations people in 1960.
  • Just over 3,000 status First Nations people were recorded as enlisting in the Second World War (an undercount), along with Métis, Inuit and non-status people.
  • Notable service: Tommy Prince (Military Medal and US Silver Star), Cree code talker Charles "Checker" Tomkins, and Mary Greyeyes of the CWAC.
  • Wartime injustices: Stoney Point reserve taken for Camp Ipperwash (1942), loss of status through enfranchisement, and unequal Veterans' Land Act benefits.

Where marks get lost

  • Treating the 1929 crash as the only cause. It was the trigger; overproduction, debt, dependence on staples, tariffs and drought explain why the Depression was so deep and long. (The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada)
  • Assuming every region suffered the same way. The Prairies were hit far harder than central Canada, and different groups (single men, immigrants, women, Indigenous communities) faced different hardships. (The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada)
  • Confusing buying on margin with buying on credit in general. Margin buying is borrowing to buy stocks; instalment credit is borrowing to buy goods such as cars and radios. Both left people unable to pay when incomes fell. (The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada)
  • Writing that everyone was poor in the 1930s. People with steady incomes often did well because prices fell; this is a question of historical perspective. (The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada)
  • Thinking Bennett did nothing. He raised tariffs, funded relief and the camps, created the Bank of Canada and Wheat Board, and proposed a New Deal; the criticism is that his actions were late, harsh or ineffective. (Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions)
  • Calling the CCF a communist party. The CCF was democratic socialist: it sought change through elections and Parliament, and Canadian communists were a separate party. (Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions)
  • Mixing up the Regina Manifesto (the CCF's 1933 program) with the Regina Riot (the violent end of the On-to-Ottawa Trek on July 1, 1935). (Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions)
  • Saying the government's programs ended the Depression. Unemployment stayed high through the 1930s; full recovery came with wartime production after 1939. (Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions)
  • Treating communism and fascism as identical. Their economic ideas were opposite (state ownership for the working class versus nationalism with private property under state control), even though their totalitarian methods were similar. (Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor)
  • Thinking extreme ideologies had no followers in Canada. Arcand's movement, Swastika Clubs, the Christie Pits riot and the Communist Party all show these ideas had Canadian supporters and victims. (Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor)
  • Calling the Holodomor a natural famine caused by bad weather. It was caused by Soviet policies of grain seizure, punishment and travel bans. (Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor)
  • Mixing up the Holodomor (Ukraine, 1932–1933, under Stalin) with the Holocaust (the Nazi persecution and murder of about six million Jews, 1933–1945). Both are recognized by Canada, but they are different events. (Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor)
  • Underestimating the scale or minimizing it. About six million Jews were murdered, about two of every three Jews in Europe; the Holocaust was a deliberate, state-organized genocide. (Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response)
  • Thinking antisemitism was only a German problem. Quotas, exclusion, covenants, fascist groups and the refusal of Jewish refugees show it was widespread in Canada too. (Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response)
  • Attributing "none is too many" directly to Mackenzie King or Blair. Abella and Troper report it from an unnamed senior official in 1945; Blair's opposition is documented separately. (Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response)
  • Assuming the Holocaust began with the death camps. It developed in stages, from exclusion laws in 1933 and the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 to ghettos, mass shootings and killing centres. (Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response)
  • Believing antisemitism ended in 1945. It continues today and remains one of the most common motives for hate crimes in Canada. (Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response)
  • Saying Canada was automatically at war in 1939 as in 1914. Canada made its own declaration on September 10, one week after Britain. (The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry)
  • Starting the story in 1939. The war's causes go back to Versailles, the Depression and a decade of unpunished aggression from 1931 onward. (The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry)
  • Confusing the Munich Agreement (September 1938, the Sudetenland) with the Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 1939, Germany and the USSR agreeing not to fight and to divide Poland). (The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry)
  • Judging appeasement only with hindsight. Explain why it seemed reasonable to many people at the time, then explain why it failed. (The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry)
  • Thinking Canada only fought on D-Day. Canadians fought from 1939 to 1945 at sea, in the air, at Hong Kong, at Dieppe, in Italy, in Normandy, at the Scheldt and in the Netherlands. (Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands)
  • Mixing up Hong Kong (a defeat by Japan in December 1941) and Dieppe (a failed raid on German-held France in August 1942). (Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands)
  • Forgetting the merchant navy. Civilian merchant sailors had a higher death rate than any of the fighting services but were long denied full veterans' recognition. (Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands)
  • Confusing Juno Beach (the Canadian landing beach on D-Day) with the other D-Day beaches: Utah and Omaha (US) and Gold and Sword (British). (Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands)
  • Saying conscripts were sent to fight early in the war. The NRMA (1940) allowed conscription for home defence only; conscripts were ordered overseas only in November 1944. (The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment)
  • Thinking the plebiscite asked voters to approve conscription. It asked them to release the government from its promise not to conscript for overseas service. (The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment)
  • Calling the treatment of Japanese Canadians only "relocation". They were uprooted, interned in camps, had their property sold without consent, and about 4,000 were sent to Japan; most were Canadian citizens. (The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment)
  • Assuming wartime gains for women were permanent. Most day nurseries closed and many women lost their jobs after 1945, although attitudes had begun to change. (The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment)
  • Treating First Nations, Métis and Inuit as one group with the same history. Different laws and policies applied to each. (First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945)
  • Assuming Indigenous veterans returned to equal treatment. Many faced loss of status, unequal veterans' benefits and continued restrictions under the Indian Act. (First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945)
  • Thinking residential schools were winding down by the 1930s. In 1931 there were 80 schools operating, the most at any one time; the last federally run school closed in 1996. (First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945)
  • Assuming every Indigenous community supported the war in the same way. Many supported it strongly, while others opposed conscription on treaty grounds. (First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945)

Practice test

24 questions from across the unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada
    1
    Which cause of the Depression affected the Prairies far more than other regions of Canada?
  2. The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada
    2
    Put the steps of the Depression's downward spiral in order, starting from falling sales.
    1. 1Businesses cut production and lay off workers
    2. 2Other businesses lose customers and their sales fall further
    3. 3Unemployed workers spend much less
    4. 4Sales and prices fall, so businesses earn less
  3. The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada
    3
    Why did Canada's dependence on exporting staples make it especially vulnerable in 1929–1933?
  4. Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions
    4
    Put these responses to the Depression in chronological order.
    1. 1The Regina Riot ends the On-to-Ottawa Trek
    2. 2Bennett announces his New Deal in radio broadcasts
    3. 3The CBC is created
    4. 4King's "five-cent piece" remark in the House of Commons
    5. 5The first federal relief camps open
    6. 6The CCF adopts the Regina Manifesto
  5. Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions
    5
    What 1933 document set out the CCF's democratic socialist program?
  6. Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions
    6
    What July 1, 1935 event ended the On-to-Ottawa Trek?
  7. Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor
    7
    Match each ideology to the regime most associated with it in the 1930s.
    Communism under Stalin
    Fascism
    Nazism
    Democratic socialism
  8. Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor
    8
    When is Holodomor Memorial Day in Canada?
  9. Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor
    9
    Which statement about Adrien Arcand is accurate?
  10. Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response
    10
    Put these events in chronological order.
    1. 1The Wannsee Conference
    2. 2Canada refuses the MS St. Louis
    3. 3Soviet troops reach Auschwitz
    4. 4The Nazis take power in Germany
    5. 5The Nuremberg Laws are passed
    6. 6Kristallnacht
  11. Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response
    11
    Which official, as director of Canada's Immigration Branch, strongly opposed admitting Jewish refugees in the 1930s?
  12. Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response
    12
    Which statement about antisemitism in Canada today is supported by Statistics Canada's police-reported data for 2024?
  13. The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry
    13
    Put these steps on the road to war in chronological order.
    1. 1The Munich Agreement gives Germany the Sudetenland
    2. 2Germany invades Poland
    3. 3The Nazi–Soviet Pact is signed
    4. 4Japan invades Manchuria
    5. 5Italy invades Ethiopia
    6. 6German troops enter the Rhineland
    7. 7Germany annexes Austria (the Anschluss)
  14. The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry
    14
    Why did Canada not go to war automatically when Britain declared war in 1939?
  15. The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry
    15
    What 1938 agreement let Germany take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia?
  16. Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands
    16
    Put these Canadian campaigns and battles in chronological order.
    1. 1D-Day landings at Juno Beach
    2. 2German forces in the Netherlands surrender
    3. 3The Battle of the Scheldt
    4. 4The defence of Hong Kong
    5. 5The Dieppe Raid
    6. 6The invasion of Sicily
    7. 7The Battle of Ortona
  17. Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands
    17
    What was the code name of the Canadian landing beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944?
  18. Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands
    18
    Why do the people of the Netherlands send tulips to Ottawa every year?
  19. The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment
    19
    Put these home-front events in chronological order.
    1. 1The government authorizes the sale of Japanese Canadians' property
    2. 2Restrictions on Japanese Canadians are lifted
    3. 3King orders 16,000 NRMA conscripts overseas
    4. 4The NRMA allows conscription for home defence
    5. 5Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong
    6. 6Order-in-council allows the removal of Japanese Canadians from the BC coast
    7. 7The national conscription plebiscite
  20. The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment
    20
    Which statement about Japanese Canadians during the war is accurate?
  21. The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment
    21
    What happened to Italian Canadians when Italy entered the war in June 1940?
  22. First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945
    22
    Match each people to a policy that applied specifically to them in this period.
    First Nations
    Métis in Alberta
    Inuit
  23. First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945
    23
    Which statement about Indigenous veterans returning home after 1945 is accurate?
  24. First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945
    24
    What did enfranchisement mean under the Indian Act?

Endless drill

Fresh numbers every time, for the calculation questions in this unit.

Endless drillnew numbers every time

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