The 31 Main Points of Chapter 15:

1. Bicycles offered greater mobility and personal freedoms over horses and buggies.

2. Since nearly 10% of the population engaged in cycling, clothing became less restrictive and more functional.  Cycling clubs and even the Tour de France originated during this time period.

3. Bicycles were affordable to the rich and poor, so they promoted equality among consumers.

4. There was a glaring disparity between the rich and poor.  Casa Loma or Sir Henry Pellatt’s home sat high above the slums below the sprawling City of Toronto.  Mr. Pellatt enjoyed his 30 bathrooms and 52 telephones while most residents who lived below the hill lived in slums.  The makeshift homes out of discarded material lacked clean drinking water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. 

5. In the 1890’s, Southern Ontario had an extensive electric light rail network and services in most cities.  For example, one could take a light rail train that passed through the following cities and towns: Dundas, Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Beamsville, and Vineland.  St. Catharines had electric trains that rain through its downtown core.

6. Timothy Eaton founded the first major department store in Toronto which offered vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, clothing, and electric washing machines.  The greatest invention of the twentieth century was the washing machine which saved hours in the household.

7. Healthcare was not universal.  It was private or hospitals largely relied on donations.  A great deal of misinformation or lack of knowledge existed about health.  Approximately, 40% of military applicants in 1914 were declared unfit for military duty.  

8. Alexander Graham Bell was able to transmit sound through wires in his laboratory in Brantford, Ontario.  The museum is still in Brantford, Ontario, just off of Clench Avenue. This is why Brantford is known as the Telephone City.  (Mr. Gretzky too is recognized by the city.)

9. Silent movies or black and white films with subtitles became popular.  Sometimes the movie was accompanied by an organist.

10. In 1871, laws were introduced to demand that all children must earn an elementary education.  However, full attendance of elementary and secondary schools did not become a reality in Canada until the early 1950’s. 

11. Literacy rates reached about 85% by 1901 for most Canadians over the age of five.

12. One room schoolhouses focused on the 3 R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with an emphasis on rote learning.   Children were often pulled out of schools to help on the farm or poor families would use their children’s wages to help supplement their family incomes. 

13.  Drinking water often became contaminated through sewage pits.  Sewage treatment and removal was nonexistent.    *Even in the 18^th century, people often bought flowers in the summer just to cover their noses while they walked, so they could mask the ‘ripe’ smell of the cities.

14. Infant and child mortality was quite high due to the following factors diseases: typhoid, diphtheria, and cholera, malnutrition, rickets, measles, tuberculosis, smallpox and polio.

typhoid-

smallpox-

diphtheria-

cholera-

malnutrition-

measles-

tuberculosis-

polio-

*American celebrities, such Jennifer McCarthy, and discredited doctors such Andrew Wakefield promoted anti-vaccine beliefs and misinformation to segments of the population that have largely been attributed to the return of many of these diseases which were eradicated.  Historically and scientifically, clear evidence has demonstrated the benefits of vaccines. *

15. In 1870, 50% of all deaths occurred among children under the age of 5. It was not uncommon to abandon children during the winter months in front of churches when the factories closed in the wintertime.

16. In 1876, the Indian Act required the children of First Nations Peoples to be assimilated by banning their cultural beliefs and practices such as the potlach on the West Coast of Canada.

17. Missionaries or Christian religious groups operated residential schools which separated children from their families and punished them for speaking their Native languages or practicing their cultural beliefs.  Estimates include the death of nearly 6000 children, but the government did not keep records.  In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada began a process of recognize the harm and suffering brought to Native communities through residential schools and to promote greater equality for Indigenous peoples.

18. The industrial revolution involved the introduction of steam and electrical power that made farming and factories more efficient.  This also involved the migration of populations from farms to cities.

19.  The technological advances and change brought new opportunities for entrepreneurs or people who started new businesses.

20.  Winnipeg, Brantford, Montreal and Halifax became manufacturing centers.

21.  Quebec and Ontario became industrial heartlands.  (The closure of factories among large areas is known as the ‘rust belt’.)

22.  Although the British Empire used global trade in the 18^th century, international trade became more extensive and accelerated.   Iron was mined in Canada; cars were assembled by McLaughlin Motors in Oshawa; rubber for tires was imported from Brazil or Indochina (Vietnam). 

23.  Like the Fraser River Gold Rush, another gold rush, the Yukon Gold Rush saw over 20 000 people climb the dreaded Chilkhoot Pass where they were met by the North-West Mounted Police who oversaw law and order in Dawson City.   Numbers soon dwindled once the bulk of the panned gold was extracted.

24. Marconi was able to send a wireless transmission or radio signal from Cornwall, England to St. John’s, Canada.

25. Graham Bell completed nearly 50 flights with his plane named the Silver Dart in Baddeck, Cape Breton.  *Bell devoted much of his life to research.  He even raised sheep to grow thicker and faster growing wool for commercial purposes.

26. Although the German, named Karl Benz invented the car, it was Daimler who opened his company in 1890.  Henry Ford, who forgot to add a reverse to his first cars, introduced assembly line or specialized jobs to make his cars more affordable.  Canadians made cars in Oshawa at McLaughlin Motors.  General Motor bought out the company and was the main employer of Oshawa until the factory closed in December 2019.    In 1968, General Motors employed nearly 20 000 workers in St. Catharines, Ontario. That number is well below 2000 today with the greater likelihood of closure.  One automotive job usually has a spin off effect of creating five other jobs.

27. Elijah McCoy was an African Canadian who studied mechanical engineering in Scotland and later establish the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit for industrial lubricants.  He invented, patented, and sold over 50 products from his company.  His work was such high quality that engineers referred to his products as “the real McCoy” or the real thing.

28. Timothy Eaton opened the first department store in Toronto, Ontario.  Most people today have visited the Eaton’s Centre on Yonge and Dundas which still carries his name next to the oldest company in Canada, the Hudson Bay Company or the Bay.

29.  Mary Pickford from Toronto became the first silent film star from Canada who gained an international attention.  Toronto today has become known as “Hollywood North” as seen by the film studies just on the corner of Kipling and Norseman and Islington and Evans.  These are just a few studios in our city.

30. Urbanization or the growth of cities became common. From 1901 to 1911, cities increased in population or over by 60%.        Two hundred years ago, 90% of the population lived outside of cities and 10% lived in cities.  Now, nearly 90% of populations live in major cities and 10% live outside of them.  The first suburban or residential homes were built around the Don Mills area of Toronto in the 1950’s and later to areas such as Rexdale and even remote locations such as Etobicoke.

31. Clifford Sifton focused on attracting traditional and landless farmers from Central and Eastern Europe to help open Canada’s West.  Some English and French Canadians did not agree with Sifton’s “open door immigration” policy.   Prior to W.W.I., Canadian immigration policies became more restrictive and discriminatory against Americans, Mediterranean peoples, Asians, East Indians, people of Jewish decent, and Africans.   Sikhs were not permitted to apply for citizenship.   Immigration today is based on a point or skill-based system.