R. B. Bennett

Richard Bedford Bennett (1870–1947) was Canada’s 11th prime minister, serving from 1930 to 1935. His government confronted the Great Depression and introduced early federal relief and regulatory measures.

Great Depression in Canada: The severe economic collapse and prolonged unemployment that affected Canada during the 1930s. The economic crisis defined Bennett’s term and drove his government’s emergency policies.
Hopewell Hill: A community in Albert County, New Brunswick, where Richard Bedford Bennett was born in 1870. Bennett’s rural New Brunswick birthplace preceded his move west and political rise.
William Lyon Mackenzie King: Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, who led the Liberal Party for much of the period from 1921 to 1948. King’s Liberals defeated Bennett in 1935 and returned to power with a different relief approach.
New Deal: A series of U.S. programs and reforms introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to address the Depression. Bennett’s 1935 reforms were often compared with Roosevelt’s more extensive American program.
Relief camps in Canada: Government-run camps that provided food and shelter to unemployed single men during the Depression. Their conditions and low wages became a focus of protest against Bennett’s relief policy.
Unemployment relief in Canada: Public assistance programs for people unable to find work, developed in Canada during the Depression. Bennett’s government expanded federal involvement in relief while facing criticism over its limits.
Dalhousie University: A public research university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded in 1818. Bennett studied law at Dalhousie before beginning his career in New Brunswick.
R. B. Bennett’s Cabinet: The ministers who served in Bennett’s federal government from 1930 to 1935. Cabinet decisions shaped the government’s responses to unemployment, trade, and federal power.
Mackenzie King’s relief policy: The Liberal government’s approach to unemployment relief under William Lyon Mackenzie King during the Depression. King opposed Bennett’s centralized relief strategy and campaigned against it in 1935.
On-to-Ottawa Trek: A 1935 protest in which unemployed relief-camp workers traveled east to demand federal action. The trek directly challenged Bennett’s handling of relief and ended after a violent confrontation in Regina.

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Arthur MeighenRelated: Bennett succeeded Meighen as Conservative leader after the party’s 1927 convention.