Richard Bedford Bennett – Canada’s 11th prime minister
Richard Bennett was a very wealthy prime minister of Canada from 1930-1935.
He came into office in 1930 due to the accusation that the previous prime minister, had no idea how to deal with depression; the majority of Canadians agreed. Bennett had plenty of plans for Canada, to change the economics and political issues. He won the 1935 election, therefore starting his reform of Canada. On January 3, 1935 Bennett made a coast to coast radio announcement stating “I am for reform, and to my mind, reform means government intervention, it means government control and regulation, it means the end of laissez-faire.” Bennet of 1935. As Bennetts reform developed, he made plans to start the “New Deal” right after U.S.
President “promised a new deal for Americans”. The new deal included such promises and laws to regulate the hours of work,provide minimum wage,improve working condition,insurance against sickness, industrial accident, and employment Relief Camps. Relief camps were developed for thousands of homeless men who were searching for work. The job in which a relief worker, worked; consisted of building bridges and roads, cutting trees, digging ditches, and worked on other projects. Relief payment were purposely kept lower than the lowest paying job. Many Canadian families starved, malnutrition and disease were common among the children. Richard Bennett strongly believed governments should not interfere in the free enterprise system.
He made efforts to regulate the economy and involved traditional policies. Bennett elevated costs to groundbreaking levels to change outcomes in hopes that he would the Canada markets. Richard Bennett convinced Britain to offer Canada some preferential trading opportunities. These efforts unfortunately did not hold off the economic hemorrhage. There had been many promises for the future of the generations outlook, like a new taxation form. Bennett had also promised changes like insurance for people, and their needs, a change in health care. Bennett also wanted to change and have more accurate working regulations.
The generation also reached for high social reforms, as did Bennet; all of these were to be improved by Bennett. and working conditions. Sadly Bennetts ideas collapsed before he had enough time to complete them. Richard Bennetts party was tightly associated with the hardships of the Depression. Bennett had no popularity like Roosevelts to be able to sell the plan. Therefore an election was called for October 1935. Bennett was put up against his opponent, Mackenzie King.
Mackenzie King had offered the choice of “King or Chaos.” This caused a massive deal of failure for Richard because the Canadians chose King that handed him a majority government. Although Bennett’ was out of office his new deal of legislation was challenged; at the Supreme Court. And the court found the most important parts were not in accordance with the political constitution or procedural rules. To answer the question;” Was Bennett the primary figure in his own demise or were there other historical developments and forces that influenced the rejection of his New Deal? Bennett had a huge impact on his own downfall. In the beginning Bennett had a great chance of changing the economics and fixing the way the government worked, he sadly failed as he was “making progress”. Although Bennett had a great plan to change everything and correct the social and economic parts of Canada, his strong demands, decisions, and rules caused a severely bombed effect on his wants.
There were many things that Bennett wanted to do, to help with the great depression. His decisions only really made a larger impact on the great depression of the 1920-1930’s. There was a few political issues that affected Bennetts plans to fix everything, such as being challenged and limited with what he could change and alter. Those restrictions may have been for the best, and maybe Bennetts downfall was truly for the better of the generation and time period; despite his hard work and dedication.
