Prohibition

Prohibition was an attempt to stem the problem of public drunkenness and misery during the 1920's by making it illegal to sell and consume intoxicating beverages. Prohibition in Canada began in 1864 with the Dunkin act was passed, which allowed any municipality to enforce prohibition by majority vote. In 1878 this was extended to a provincial level. In 1900 Prince Edward Island became the first 'dry' province, officially enforcing prohibition. By 1916 all provinces except for Quebec were enforcing prohibition. Quebec had a brief period of prohibiton in 1919 but was this was brief because of intense public pressure (81.10% against prohibition). A heavy roman catholic presence in Quebec also played a part in keeping alchohol in Quebec because of Wine/Jesus blood.

Of course every law gets broken and in Canada prohibition was hard to enforce. Citizens would brew there own liquor with stills and create their own 'moonshine' which was inferior to proffesionaly made liquor but gave people what they wanted. Smuggling was happenening all over the st lawrence region where boats would be loaded full of liquor and go to and from the USA which resulted in political tension between Canada and the USA. The USA had stricter prohibition then Canada and also continued much longer continuing all the way to 1933. This promoted and funded criminal activity most notably the Italian Mafia's Al Capone who is notorious for Smuggling alchohol during prohibition. People were constantly finding ways to drink which included underground operations called "speakeasies" or "blind pigs" which were illicit places to drink. People went so far as to get legal prescriptions for alchohol from doctors. Long line ups were common during Christmas holidays.

In 1920 Prohibiton began to end. B.C. was declared 'wet' and soon after the people of B.C. were drinking alchohol again. This was followed by Manitoba in 1923,