MP-0000.158.59 | Street scene, Winnipeg, MB, 1919
Street scene, Winnipeg, MB, 1919
Anonyme - Anonymous
1919, 20th century
Silver salts and transparent ink on glass - Gelatin dry plate process
8 x 10 cm
Gift of Mr. Stanley G. Triggs
MP-0000.158.59
© McCord Museum
Description
Keywords: automobile (34) , Cityscape (3948) , cityscape (422) , commercial (84) , group (644) , Photograph (77678) , road (36) , streetscape (1737) , streetscape (187) , transportation (338)
Description
"Winnipeg -- Street Scene: The rise of Winnipeg from "Fort Garry" with a population, in 1871, of 215, to its present position of third largest city of Canada (population 285,000), has been phenomonal. Commanding the trade of a vast region to the north, east and west, it is handsomely built, and has parks, hospitals, great flour mills, grain elevators, huge abattoirs, the largest stock yards in Canada, and many fine public buildings, including the Provincial Parliament building. Immense Canadian Pacific railway yards -- with 314 miles of tracks -- testify to the city's enormous trade, of which the major part is grain. Within 100 miles the city has sufficient power for manufacturing purposes to supply the needs of a population of over 1,500,000 and to turn out products worth in neighborhood of eighty million dollars annually."
Excerpt from "ACROSS CANADA BY C. P. R.", Section 4--The Prairie Provinces; booklet, McGill University Illustrated Lectures, 1928.
Keys to History
The war caused prices of almost all consumer goods to rocket. Canadian workers joined the unions in unheard-of numbers to try and cope with inflation by getting higher wages. Considering that the war was also an opportunity to rein in the worst abuses of the economic system, they demanded the recognition of unions and better working conditions. But both the federal government and the private-sector employers ignored these demands. The leaders of the union movement were not even invited to join the federal bodies organizing the war effort, unlike their British and French counterparts. The workers' frustration grew, union activity became more frenetic, and in 1918 strikes spread like wildfire. In 1919 Canada's unionized workers were determined to make quantifiable gains. In Winnipeg they resorted to a general strike to make their point.
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What
In 1919 Winnipeg, capital of the Prairies, looked very modern with its wide paved roads, parked cars and tall buildings.
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Where
The city was also known as the home of the greatest concentration of trades unions west of Ontario. In compensation for their willing sacrifices during the war, the unions demanded better wages and official recognition.
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When
On 15 May 1919, when negotiations broke down between the owners and the construction and metallurgy unions, the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council called a general strike.
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Who
In the following hours 30,000 workers stopped work. A strike committee organized essential services, alarming the middle classes of Winnipeg and the federal government, who feared a Bolshevik-style riot. The strike ended on 25 June, after the arrest of ten ringleaders and an armed intervention by the mounted police.
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