Background to the Transaction

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 17-26

17

one

Background to the

Transaction

W   understand the 1920 bond purchase

transaction conducted by Jarvis on behalf of the Ontario

government without looking at the political situation

and the state of the economy in late 1919 and early 1920. An analysis

of each is necessary to appreciate how and why the bond purchases

were undertaken.

On 20 October 1919, Ontario voters went to the polls. Most were

unhappy with the state of af‌fairs in Ontario. The Conservatives had

been in power for fourteen years, many of which had been dicult.

The depression of 1913–14 had been followed by World War I and four

years of f‌ighting. Armistice had come in November 1918, but the econ-

omy had not returned to normal as people had hoped. There was high

inf‌lation. Fuel and food prices were especially high. As if this was not

bad enough, in the spring of 1918 and again in the fall and winter of

1918–19, many had suf‌fered from the so-called Spanish f‌lu, a pandemic

then sweeping the world. Half of the patients at the Toronto General

Hospital were pandemic cases. Eighty nurses were sick, and three died.1

Many businesses were closed or operating at less than full capacity.2

Workers were unhappy. Many were unemployed. Those who had jobs

complained of low wages, long hours, and unsafe working conditions.

With all of this going on, it is no surprise that 1919 has been called “the