On April 25, 1947, a group of kids in Ladysmith, BC, staged a strike against the sudden price hike on chocolate bars. The rise in price, from five cents to eight cents, was a result of the government lifting wage and price freezes in the wake of WWII. The protest, supported by parents, in the name of freedom and a kid’s right to have reasonable access to chocolate, spread to other Canadian towns and cities. Kids in Burnaby held up traffic for two hours with a bicycle parade. On April 30, in Victoria, two hundred kids stormed the Legislature, demanding the return of five-cent chocolate bars. Other strikes took place in Edmonton and other cities stretching eastward. The day before the largest protest, scheduled for May 3 in Toronto, the Toronto Evening Telegraph ran a story claiming that the event was a communist initiative. This was related to the fact that one of the many organizations involved in the strike was the National Federation of Labour Youth, some members of which were affiliated with the Communist Part. Worried about being associated with the ‘reds,’ parents wouldn’t allow their kids to take part in further protests, effectively shutting down the strike a week after it began. During the strike, candy bar sales dropped by 80%.
Source: This day in history: May 3, 1947 (2012). Vancouver Sun.
| Drugs: | Cacao (cocoa, chocolate) |
|---|---|
| Regions: | Canada |
