Though Canada was predominantly rural in the nineteenth century, its cities had an influence out of proportion to their size. Most of the leaders of temperance and prohibition societies lived in cities, and it was city people who supplied most of the funds for prohibition campaigns. Since the cities were also growing rapidly, it is not surprising that the prohibition movement became concerned about urban problems and often saw alcohol as the cause of them. One of these problems was poverty. There may not have been more poverty in the city than in the country, but it was far more obvious as the poor in the city were packed by the tens of thousands in squalid slum districts. Since there were few charities and almost no government services for these people, poverty usually meant a miserable life and an early death. To prohibitionists, who had long believed that alcohol prevented prosperity, and who now noted that many of the poor drank, it seemed obvious that alcohol was the cause of poverty.
Courtesy: Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, Montreal
