Canadian Pacific Railway

As a historical reference, the name refers to the railway that was built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1871 and 1885.

History

Creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task originally undertaken by the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald for a combination of reasons. British Columbia had insisted upon a national railroad to join the Confederation of Canada. Thus the government promised to build a railway linking the Pacific province to the eastern provinces within ten years of July 20, 1871. Macdonald also saw it as essential to creating a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent. Quebec and Ontario manufacturing interests desired access to sources of raw materials and markets in Canada's west.

The successful construction of such a massive project, although troubled by delays and scandal, was considered an impressive feat of engineering and political will for a country with a small population and difficult terrain. It was by far the longest railroad ever constructed at the time.

The first obstacle to its construction was economic. The logical route for a railway serving western Canada would be to go through the American Mid-West and the city of Chicago. To buld the railway through Canada 1000 miles of rugged and barren terrain in Northern Ontario had to be crossed. To do so the government offered huge benefits to the company including vast amounts of land in western Canada.

In 1872 Sir John A. Macdonald and other high-ranking politicians, swayed by bribes in the so-called Pacific scandal, granted federal contracts to the CPR Company (Hugh Allan) and the Inter-Ocean Railway Company. As a result of this scandal, Sir John's party was removed from office with Alexander Mackenzie reigning as Prime Minister until October 16, 1878 when Sir John was returned to power. In 1880 a new Canadian Pacific Railway Company (unrelated to Hugh Allan's) began construction with $25,000,000 (approximately $625,000,000 in modern Canadian money) in credit from the Canadian government and a grant of 25,000,000 acres (101 000 km²) of land. The renowned railway executive, Cornelius Van Horne was recruited to oversee construction with the inducement of a generous salary and the intriguing challenge of handling such a difficult railway project. The railway was foundering until March of 1884 when the Railway Relief Bill was passed, providing a further $22,500,000 in loans to the CPR Company. On November 7, 1885 the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, making good on the original promise, albeit four years late.

The story of the railway's construction was most famously told in popular history books by Pierre Berton, The National Dream and The Last Spike which were adapted into a popular CBC television series called The National Dream.

The railroad has also been criticized, however. It has never been popular in western Canada, where it was often a far more expensive alternative to American routes they were barred from using. This complaint was somewhat ameliorated by the government regulation of the Crow's Nest Pass rate. The route of the railway was also not ideal. The best land on the prairies is well north of the American border near cities such as Edmonton and Saskatoon, but in an attempt to grab American traffic the railroad was built at the latitudes of Regina and Calgary that is often too dry for successful farming.

The railroad has also been criticized for the massive government subsidies that it was given, especially after the route became extremely profitable.

As a logical and physical connection to its trains, the CPR gradually got involved in shipping from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. It also built up, in that same time period, a series of impressive "Chateau" hotels from one end of the country to the other. Two of the most famous ones are the Château Frontenac in Quebec and the Chateau Lake Louise, on the shore of Lake Louise in Alberta.

See also: Canadian National Railway, Canadian culture, History of Chinese immigrants

External link

• CP Rail Official Website

Referenced By