Prairie society was a synthesis of the old and the new. Immigrants hungry for freedom inevitably brought many old ways to the new land, but the heady atmosphere before 1913 created a permanent view of the Prairies as a place where there was both the opportunity for financial gain and where innovative and sometimes radical approaches to problems could be entertained unfettered by convention. In time it became apparent that the fate of the region and its workers was inextricably bound to the vicissitudes of the wheat economy. Outside industrial, financial and political forces played with the fortunes of the region, while the toil of both farmers and workers went to fuel the industrial capacity of Central Canada.
When the depression of 1913 wiped out many of the gains made earlier by organized workers, numerous locals collapsed and union membership declined. Some workers found themselves no better off than when they arrived on the Prairies, still chasing seasonal jobs wherever they existed or facing lengthy periods of unemployment. The majority, however, had enjoyed at least some improvement in the quality of their lives in the quarter of a century during which the rough edges of frontier life had been rounded off. They had more of the amenities possessed by workers elsewhere in the country, as well as many of the same problems.
While their motives and aspirations may have resembled those of workers in other places, prairie workers could not help but be aware of the effect the local environment had on their lives and attitudes. From the start, economic, social and geographic realities militated against the formation of a strong, cohesive and independent working class. What emerged was small pockets of strength where certain conditions fostered its growth. These might be where working and living conditions had been especially bad for a long time; where concentrations of people of like background and opinion produced an ideological base; or where many workers were threatened by changes affecting their control of their trades or their work place. Mostly, however, individual self-interest prevented mutual understanding and co-operation. Lacking cohesion, strength and even commitment in some cases, the prairie working class was seldom able to pursue its ambitions. Its response to its general situation and to new threats to workers was sporadic and unsustained.
Only with the catalyst of World War I did the seeds of working-class consciousness planted earlier germinate to produce significant attempts at permanent change. The upheaval and inflation of the war caused all prairie workers to reassess their situation with the result that there were radical expressions of discontent immediately after the war. The creation of the One Big Union and the outbreak of the lengthy Winnipeg General Strike are two examples that stand out among scattered others. Virtually all of these efforts were either quelled by the state or were undermined by the social and economic conditions that characterized the Prairies before and after the war. Though the working class had encountered many formidable obstacles in the pre-war period, it had succeeded in making its presence felt, and after World War I it could no longer be ignored.
