http://danielwyatt.blogspot.ca/2013/06/regina-motor-city.html
Regina - The Motor City
General Motors Assembly Plant. Regina, SK, 1928.
(Canadian Public Domain)
If not for the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression that followed, Regina, Saskatchewan may be more commonly called the Motor City today. And not the Queen City, as Reginans know it.
The Roaring Twenties was the happiest of times. World War I had ended. The soldiers were back home living it up. Stock prices were rising. People had money and were spending it freely. Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. Babe Ruth was the biggest name in sports and the best paid. There was jazz music, flappers, and bootleggers like Chicago’s infamous Al Capone. While Canada saw only two prime ministers in office in Ottawa, the United States saw as many as four presidents elected to Washington. Nearly everyone had a radio, this before TV. Trains were the way to travel great distances and to transport goods and raw material across North America.
In Canada, there was a huge demand for our homegrown raw material, wheat and lumber in particular. The third most-populated province at the time, behind only to Ontario and Quebec, Saskatchewan was riding on its own wave of prosperity with its agriculturally-based economy. Financial indicators showed Saskatchewan to be an area of unlimited potential. Third in GDP and due to soaring wheat prices by the end of the 1920s, Saskatchewan’s per capita income made it one of the richest places on earth. The capital city of Regina—named after Queen Victoria —witnessed a construction boom. The city was growing rapidly. By the end of the
1920s, the Queen City had over 50,000 residents. There were restaurants, shopping centers, and 6 downtown movie theatres .
How times have changed a great history story
Prev
Linear Mode
