If Abbe Groulx’s cultural nationalism, as expressed in the novels, poetry, and historical writing of his followers, had political implications, the same was true of much of the cultural production of English Canada. The work of the Group of Seven expressed an increasingly dominant national sentiment. What the Group and its propagandists contended was that Canada was a North American nation whose art should reflect that environment and not be governed by inherited traditions. “For Canada to find a complete racial expression of herself through art a complete break with European traditions was necessary,” one of the Group’s supporters wrote. He went on to assert that what was necessary was “a deep-rooted love for the country’s natural environment.” Though the mythology of the movement emphasized the Group’s struggle for recognition, success actually came early. By the time of the prestigious 1924 Wembley exhibition in England, where the Group’s work dominated the Canadian collection, the new painting had been adopted by the National Gallery as “national” art. Here was a “North American” art that suited the mood of a country weary of European war and turned in upon itself. That such other artists as David Milne and Ozias Leduc were just as talented did not win them the attention attracted by the Group of Seven, lackson and Harris and the others who presented the Canadian environment in bold strokes and brilliant colours apparently touched the right nerve and, probably for the first time, gave painting a leading place in the country’s culture. When Emily Carr associated herself with them in the 1930s, even she, who had rarely tasted success, benefited from the new national aesthetic. Milne may have been a little envious, but he was close to the mark when he wrote of his countrymen’s enthusiasm for the Group of Seven:
Tom Thomson isn’t popular for what aesthetic qualities he shows, but because his work is close enough to representation to get by the average man; besides his subjects are the ones that have pleasant associations for most of us, holidays, rest, recreation. Pleasant associations, beautiful subjects, good painting. Then in Canada we like to have our heavens made to order and in our own image. They mustn’t be too good, and above all not too different.
The patriotic promotions of the newly founded Canadian Authors’ Association, the self-conscious Canadianism of Macleans and the Canadian Forum, and the Group of Seven were all part of Mackenzie King’s Canada. To some degree they all shared in the illusory optimism of the last years of the 1920s. Changes in popular culture.
Canadian-born inventor Reginald A. Fessenden (1866-1932). While serving as a wireless expert for the U. S. Weather Service, Fessenden developed the principle of amplitude modulation (am), the basis of all modern radio and television broadcasting. He made the first public broadcast of voice and music from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve 1906. In 1928 the U. S. Radio Trust paid him $2.5 million in recognition of his contributions to radio technology.
Based on new technology, also contributed to the relaxed mood of the 1920s, and to Canada’s integration in North America.
During the 1920s the automobile, the radio, and the moving picture began to make a profound impact on Canadian lives. The automobile, first as a curiosity, then as a status symbol for the wealthy, was already in use before the war. But in the 1920s mass production and declining prices made it more widely available, both as a means of transportation and for recreation. From about 20,000 registered motor vehicles in 1911, the number rose to nearly 400,000 in 1920 and exceeded 1,000,000 by 1930. In the immediate post-war years many of these cars were manufactured in Canada by such companies as McLaughlin’s of Oshawa, but by the end of the decade the industry, by then employing some 13,000 workers, had been almost totally integrated into the U. S. industry—Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Not the least important aspect of the impact of the auto on society was the development of a system of good roads at taxpayer expense. The Canada Ffighways Act of 1919 pointed to the future:
By 1930 the country had built nearly 130,000 kilometres (80,000 miles) of hardsurfaced roads and hundreds of thousands of gravel and dirt.
Radio, too, came into its own after the war. In 1913 the first legislation governing transmission had been passed, and in 1920 the first program was broadcast from Montreal. Soon a number of private stations were established, often in association with newspapers, but sometimes with religious affiliations. Yet most Canadians, by the end of the 1920s, listened to programs that originated in the United States. That problem, and the question of the role of religiously oriented stations, forced the government, in 1928, to establish a royal commission to examine the whole issue of ownership and licensing. Its report, in 1930, surprised many by its strong advocacy of a publicly owned system that would not follow the U. S. dependence on commercials and would encourage the development of Canadian programming.
By the time the problem of radio was examined, the Canadian film industry had virtually disappeared. First accepted as a form of popular entertainment in the United States, the industry had begun to take root in Canada by the early twenties. Yet it had disappeared by the middle of the decade. Plagued by a lack of financing, a small local box office, and difficulties in gaining access to theatres dominated by the U. S. chains, the industry never grew beyond infancy. Consequently, successful and aspiring Canadian actors and actresses and filmmakers rapidly made their way to Hollywood, and Canadians became part of the audience for the flood of films that emerged from California. Attempts were made by both the federal government and some provinces to counteract what was seen hy some as a dangerous threat to Canadian culture. But the efforts were feeble attempts to use films for the promotion of patriotism. It was not until the establishment of the National Film Board in 1939 that more systematic policies were developed to create Canadian films. But the nfb’s work was confined mainly to documentary films, and almost nothing was done to encourage a feature-film industry.
Thus, in the new areas of popular culture, where expensive technology required either government assistance or enormous markets, Canadians fell increasingly under the influence of the United States. Radio alone was a partial exception, but even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, when it was established in 1936, still allowed for commercial programming, including feeds from the United States. It was not until late in the 1930s that the significant impact of radio on Canadian life, especially in politics, became fully evident.
World History
