Impacts

Prohibition was, in many ways, a failed experiment.  But it did have great effects on the present and the time period after prohibition.  These effects good or bad are all important to what shapes Canada today.

Short Term

During WWI, prohibition was a tactic used by the government to help ration fruits and grain so as to aid those in the Alliance fighting at the western front.  For the duration of prohibition in Canada, there was a general decrease in crime, but on the other hand, organized crime, smuggling from Canada to the US in particular, became a very prominent part of their society.  All in all, prohibition was not that significant for the war effort, and actually created more problems then it solved, what with all those against prohibition and the trouble it caused with organized crime and the economy (taking away the entire liquor industry).  As a result of these things prohibition was in no way a success.

Long Term

What came out of Canadian prohibition has had an enormous effect on things that still exist today.  One of these things is the liquor systems created around Canada that still exist today.  Through the nationalization of alcohol directly following prohibition, Canada found a state liquor sale system that works for most parties and still lasts today.  This system is in no way perfect and has over gone many changes from the original systems formed after prohibition but those first systems are the basis of what we have today.  Another thing that prohibition had a large effect on was the evolution of organized crime.  Canada’s role in the revolution of American gangsters during their prohibition era is undeniable, as many of Canada’s liquors were the supply with which they worked with.  The American prohibition fostered new waves of organized crime that today influence gang and criminal society around the world.   The most significant things prohibition has had an effect on is women’s equality.  Of course during those times women were just looking for the right of suffrage, and have come a long way since.  Prohibition provided women in Canada with one of the first platforms where their opinions would be included with men, and the more fronts that women had equal rights as men the more equality there was.