By the end of the war, Canada's factories and farms were producing at a tremendous rate. Many Canadians, who had sacrificed for the war effort, were rewarded with a flourishing economy, but one of the costs of six years of war was the loss of more than forty thousand lives. Social tensions had also been caused by war-related fears, overcrowding, rapacious landlords and shortages of consumer goods.
While victory celebrations were fairly peaceful throughout most of the country, pent-up frustrations were vented in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which had experienced extremely rapid population growth between 1939 and 1945. In the public disturbances of 7 and 8 May 1945 businesses and shops were vandalized or looted in both cities. In this scene, the mannequin is the only reminder of the display which had been in the window of this clothing store on Halifax's Barrington Street.
Courtesy: Photographed by Wilfred Doucette, Public Archives of Canada (C-79567)
