The desperate circumstances in which many of Aberhart's listeners found themselves during the thirties is illustrated by this photograph. Calgary's rapid growth, which had resumed in the mid-twenties after a short pause following World War I, collapsed along with the Canadian economy at the end of the decade. Thousands of Calgary's once-optimistic citizens, like those in the picture, were suddenly thrown on relief.
Municipal and other government authorities, like the unemployed themselves, were convinced that if the individual's dignity was to be sustained, relief could not simply be handed out; some service had to be rendered in return. During the first few years of the Depression, some cities were able to utilize relief workers on beneficial projects. The pick, shovel and wheelbarrow brigade (hand labour was preferred) shown here was engaged in levelling the terrain for future residential construction. In 1931, when this photograph was taken, few could imagine the problems ahead. As the Depression wore on, as municipal and then provincial coffers were exhausted, and as hope began to fade, relief projects became increasingly meaningless. Men were occupied picking dandelions in city parks, chopping wood, and in some instances, digging holes that others would then fill. In 1935 the call of Aberhart and others for a "better way" fell on receptive ears. For additional information on the urban response to unemployment and the Depression, examine John H. Taylor's Cities in Crisis: The Great Depression (Canada's Visual History, volume 36).
