Government Responses to Depression

Active learning shifts students from passive note-taking to grappling with real dilemmas faced by leaders during the Great Depression. By debating policies, simulating protests, and analyzing party platforms, students connect abstract government responses to human consequences, making this historical period more vivid and relevant.

• Grade 10
• Canadian Studies
• 4 activities
• 35 min–50 min

Learning Objectives

1. Critique the effectiveness of R.B. Bennett's 'New Deal' policies using specific economic and social data from the period.
2. Explain the socio-economic conditions that led to the emergence of new political parties like the CCF and Social Credit.
3. Analyze the significance of the On-to-Ottawa Trek as a direct action protest against government relief policies.
4. Compare the approaches of Mackenzie King and R.B. Bennett in addressing the economic crisis of the Great Depression.
5. Synthesize information from primary and secondary sources to evaluate the impact of government responses on different segments of Canadian society.

Town Hall Meeting

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Policy Debate: King vs. Bennett

Divide class into two teams: one defends King's limited intervention, the other Bennett's active measures. Provide source packets with speeches, stats, and letters. Teams prepare 5-minute opening statements, rebuttals, and closing arguments. Conclude with whole-class vote on most effective approach.

Prepare & details

Critique the effectiveness of R.B. Bennett's 'New Deal' policies.

Facilitation Tip: In the Timeline Build, have students use sticky notes for events and policies so they can rearrange and revise their sequence as they learn new information.

Setup: Chairs in rows facing a front table for officials, podium for speakers

Materials: Stakeholder role cards, Issue briefing document, Speaking request cards, Voting ballot

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Social Awareness

Town Hall Meeting

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

Protest Simulation: On-to-Ottawa Trek

Assign roles as trekkers, officials, media, and Bennett's advisors. Groups plan a 'march' across the classroom, creating signs and demands based on historical facts. Hold a negotiation session where officials respond, then debrief on outcomes and legacies.

Prepare & details

Explain the emergence of new political parties like the CCF and Social Credit.

Setup: Chairs in rows facing a front table for officials, podium for speakers

Materials: Stakeholder role cards, Issue briefing document, Speaking request cards, Voting ballot

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Social Awareness

Jigsaw

⏱ 40 min·Small Groups

Jigsaw: CCF and Social Credit

Expert groups study one new party's platform using primary documents. Experts then teach their findings to home groups via posters or skits. Home groups compare platforms and predict electoral impacts.

Prepare & details

Analyze the significance of the On-to-Ottawa Trek as a form of protest.

Setup: Flexible seating for regrouping

Materials: Expert group reading packets, Note-taking template, Summary graphic organizer

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Town Hall Meeting

⏱ 35 min·Pairs

Timeline Build: Responses and Reactions

Pairs sequence events from King's election to post-Trek shifts on a shared digital or paper timeline. Add cause-effect arrows and quotes. Present to class, discussing turning points.

Prepare & details

Critique the effectiveness of R.B. Bennett's 'New Deal' policies.

Setup: Chairs in rows facing a front table for officials, podium for speakers

Materials: Stakeholder role cards, Issue briefing document, Speaking request cards, Voting ballot

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Social Awareness

Teaching This Topic

Teach this topic through role-based inquiry, where students reconstruct historical decisions and their ripple effects. Avoid presenting leaders as heroes or villains; instead, focus on constraints and trade-offs. Research shows this approach builds critical thinking by letting students evaluate decisions with limited information, mirroring real-world policymaking.

What to Expect

Students will demonstrate understanding by contrasting King’s and Bennett’s approaches using policy evidence, explaining how protests influenced policy changes, and identifying how new parties shaped long-term welfare state development. Success looks like clear, evidence-based arguments and thoughtful connections between actions and outcomes.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Policy Debate: King vs. Bennett, watch for students assuming Bennett’s New Deal fully succeeded like Roosevelt’s.

What to Teach Instead

Use the Policy Debate’s policy cards to compare the scope and timing of Bennett’s New Deal with Roosevelt’s, highlighting that Bennett’s measures were struck down by courts and implemented after the 1935 election loss.

Common Misconception

During Party Platform Jigsaw: CCF and Social Credit, watch for students viewing new parties as having no lasting impact.

What to Teach Instead

Have students map CCF policies in the Jigsaw to modern welfare state programs, such as public healthcare, to show direct influence and correct the oversimplification.

Common Misconception

During Protest Simulation: On-to-Ottawa Trek, watch for students dismissing the trek as a chaotic failure.

What to Teach Instead

Use the role-play’s discussion of the Regina Riot and public opinion shifts to emphasize the trek’s role in exposing camp abuses and pressuring policy changes, despite its violent end.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

After Policy Debate: King vs. Bennett, ask students to summarize their group’s strongest argument using one policy example and one impact, then vote on whose approach was more effective.

Exit Ticket

After Party Platform Jigsaw: CCF and Social Credit, collect exit tickets where students write one CCF or Social Credit policy and one sentence explaining why it appealed to Canadians during the Depression.

Quick Check

During Protest Simulation: On-to-Ottawa Trek, present a brief relief camp worker’s experience and ask students to identify which protest movement or party best represents their grievances, explaining their choice in one sentence.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge early finishers to draft a letter to the editor from the perspective of a relief camp worker or a Bennett supporter, using evidence from the Protest Simulation and party platforms to justify their stance.
• Scaffolding for struggling students: Provide sentence starters for the Policy Debate, such as 'King’s approach failed because...' or 'Bennett’s policies mattered because...'.
• Deeper exploration: Have students research and present on how one New Deal policy (e.g., unemployment insurance) compares to modern Canadian social programs, tracing the policy’s evolution and impact.

Key Vocabulary

Relief Camps	Government-run camps established during the Great Depression to provide work and basic living conditions for unemployed single men, often characterized by low pay and harsh environments.
New Deal (Bennett)	A series of programs and reforms introduced by Prime Minister R.B. Bennett in 1935, inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's initiative, aiming to alleviate economic hardship through measures like unemployment insurance and minimum wage.
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)	A democratic socialist political party formed in 1932, advocating for social planning, public ownership of key industries, and a welfare state to address economic inequality.
Social Credit	A political movement, particularly strong in Alberta, that proposed monetary reforms, including the distribution of 'social dividends', to stimulate the economy and combat poverty.
On-to-Ottawa Trek	A protest march by thousands of relief camp workers in 1935 who travelled from Vancouver to Ottawa to demand better working conditions and government action, ultimately halted in Regina.