Morale and Morality on the Alberta Homefront
Jeff Keshen
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
Those who relinquished farm life usually headed for larger cities where, though employment was available, decent accommodation soon became rare. In Edmonton, into which approximately 20,000 new residents poured by the end of 1942, municipal surveys taken two years earlier classified 22.2 per cent of accommodation as "overcrowded" and 46 per cent as “substandard”.11 And in Calgary, where during the first three years of the war construction firms managed to acquire only enough material to build 300 homes, the vacancy rate hit an all time low of 0.09 per cent.12 In 1941, Ottawa established the Wartime Housing Corporation to construct prefabricated temporary shelter for war workers in the most crowded areas, but shortages of building supplies, along with opposition in the Finance Department towards large-scale publicly owned accommodation, kept the programme to a fraction of needs.13
As a result of these conditions newcomers were forced to accept all types of lodgings, such as garages or cellars whose ceilings barely reached six feet. Aware of such desperation, a number of Alberta homeowners, like Canadians elsewhere, grasped at the chance to make some tax-free cash. For those who could move to the countryside, windfall profits were available. After the arrival of the Americans in Edmonton, with their numerous civilian advisers, talk circulated about 300 per cent profits on house sales.14 Because most people could not leave the city, excessive rents became far more common. It did not surprise municipal officials in Edmonton to find a family of three paying $30 monthly for an 81 square foot room with no running water, a price which before the war could have secured a small bungalow.15 To control such behaviour, in late 1941 the Wartime Prices and Trade Board [WPTB] imposed nationwide rent controls and a service to evaluate the worth of accommodation. It slowed, but by no means stopped the abuses - which also included demands for "key money" and the forced purchase of furniture - because numerous landlords realized that only a minority of tenants would report illegal charges for fear of finding themselves on the street.
Whenever opportunity beckoned on the underground war economy, plenty of Albertans proved willing to ignore government entreaties for loyal conduct. With the appearance of gas rationing in April 1942, not only did one find, as in the rest of the country, the appearance of forged coupons, but also a substantial number of farmers selling extra consignments of coloured gasoline authorized to them by Ottawa to help increase food output. Meanwhile, in Edmonton a particularly active black market emerged in cigarettes, as some civilians created an organized network with American soldiers who received a large excess of subsidized smokes.16
Of all black market activities, however, that most specifically related to Alberta concerned beef. Ranchers not only resented Ottawa's demand that they produce more food with less help, but also felt that after years of low returns during the Depression, the WPTB price ceiling established over meat in November 1941 was far too low. Moreover, throughout much of 1942 the United States did not impose a ceiling on beef, and when one was created it was higher than that in Canada, thus prompting record shipments of cattle south until the federal government imposed strict export controls.17
Feeding the resentment of ranchers was the former Premier of Saskatchewan, and now federal Agricultural Minister, Jimmy Gardiner, an ambitious politician who realized that rural voters constituted his power base. In cabinet, he argued for a price hike on all agricultural commodities, particularly beef, and justified the decision of some ranchers to hold back cattle from the marketplace in protest.18 By late 1942, shortages of meat selling at the official ceiling price appeared in butcher shops across Canada, admittedly a situation primarily due to rising demand from overseas, but also made worse by the actions of ranchers. Besides some who held back stock, others smuggled steers to the United States, or slaughtered the product themselves and sold at an illegal price to anyone passing by. Moreover, transactions flourished between ranchers and black market dealers who passed on the untagged meat to slaughterhouses. One report submitted before parliament in early 1943 estimated that over the previous year, the number of uninspected killings had doubled.19
With complaints mounting from citizens, restaurants and supermarkets about shortages and price gouging, Ottawa responded with coupon meat rationing on 27 May 1943, permitting each person two pounds per week made up of various quality cuts.20 Distribution improved, but by no means did black marketing disappear. For instance, under the scheme ranchers were permitted to keep back enough beef for slaughter to feed their family. However, there were few government inspectors to see that this was not exceeded; and with the grievances of ranchers over prices still not addressed satisfactorily, under-the-table operations continued, thus providing those consumers possessing extra cash with more than their fair share.
In addition to such unsavoury conduct, the war, with its generally heightened level of activity, also brought to Alberta many "big city" trappings which some residents, despite their loyalty to the cause, voiced reservations over. In Calgary, for example, a number of people complained to those in charge of nearby BCATP bases about excessive noise and asked that planes not fly over the city after dusk.21 Such nuisances, however, were minor compared to those relating to soldiers on leave. Troops continually poured into the nearest towns, whose facilities usually were quite limited, making it impossible, said many residents, for them to eat out, see a movie, or in the larger centres, to find a seat on a bus or get a taxicab. It even became necessary for regiments like the Edmonton Fusiliers to threaten its members with fines if they did not stop hassling citizens for free car rides.22
Notes
11. National Archives of Canada [NAC] MG26 J2, William Lyon Mackenzie King papers [WLMK], Vol. 372, File W-310, Undated memorandum entitled “Urban areas - More than 20,000 Population”.
12. MacLean's, 15 July 1942, 15; GL, MG 5841, Calgary Local Council of Women, 1943 Yearbook, 37.
13. John Bacher, Keeping to the Marketplace: The Evolution of Canadian Housing Policy, [Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993], p. 87.
14. City of Edmonton Archives [CE], RG 11, records of City Clerk, Class 210, File 35, M. Mills to Mayor Fry, 26 May 1944.
15. Ibid, file 29, Memorandum in Support of our Application for Increased Quotas for Goods for Edmonton and Northern Alberta, Submitted by the Wholesale and Retail Divisions, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, 7 April 1943.
16. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Annual Report, 1945, 32-3; Interview with Laura Hamilton.
17. NAC, MG26 J4, WLMK, Vol. 372, undated resolution of Kent County Council; Ibid, C.G. Rutter to King, 8 Jan. 1943.
18. Canadian Business, March 1943, 61; Joseph Schull, The Great Scot: A Biography of Donald Gordon [Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979], p. 70.
19. House of Commons, Debates, 18 Feb 1943, 547.
20. NAC, RG 36, Records of the Wartime prices and Trade Board, Vol. 1547, Memo to Local Ration Boards, 27 April 1943.
21. CC, RG 26, Mrs. C.J. Orman to J.M. Miller, 26 Jan. 1941.
22. GL, MG 1961, 17 July 1941.