Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)

Canada in 1870 was a jumble of scattered towns and settlements, many so far apart that travelling between them was impossible for most people. It was hardly a nation at all, though Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba were politically united in Confederation. The country’s politicians worried about internal divisions and about American expansion into the North West. They searched for a way to unite and strengthen the country.

Settlement of the North West was a top priority. British Columbia seemed terribly remote to most Canadians, but John A. MacDonald’s Conservative government was determined to bring the far-flung colony into Confederation. MacDonald dreamed of a trans-continental British North American nation, and he was willing to promise just about anything to entice BC into it.

In 1871 he did just that, pledging to BC that a trans-continental railway would connect its citizens with the rest of Canada within ten years. The railway would also bring together the expanses of unsettled mountain and prairie in between, and protect them from the advances of the United States that MacDonald feared.

MacDonald’s Liberal critics, and even some surprised members of his own party, were quick to decry the plan. Some called it foolish, others simply impossible. To Liberal leader Alexander Mackenzie, the pledge was “insane.”

Canada was, after all, a young nation of less than 3 million people. The proposed rail line would be longer than any that had yet been built, and more expensive than anything the Canadian government had attempted before. The early estimate the Conservatives gave was one hundred million dollars – a cost unimaginable to most Canadians.

Despite MacDonald’s enthusiasm, the first few years of planning and construction seemed to prove his critics right. The CPR was off to a rough start. The Conservatives were plagued by financial woes, and in 1873 the “Pacific Scandal” appeared to be a death blow to the party and the dream of a Pacific railway. Hugh Allen, an industrialist whose company had won the contract to build the railway, had also given large sums to the Conservatives during the last election campaign. Such political patronage ousted the Conservatives from power and prompted the election of the Liberals, who had little real interest in building the railway.

MacDonald and his party returned to power in 1878, after five years of Liberal government in which the building of the railway had made slow progress. BC saw the promised deadline fast approaching, and the railway was nowhere near completion. The people of that province had been hit harder than the rest of the country by a recent depression, and were anxious for the economic benefit the railroad would bring.

The Conservative government knew that something had to be done to demonstrate its commitment to the railroad. In 1879, MacDonald introduced the National Policy. Intended to bring the country together, its three stated goals were to finish the railway, encourage immigration to the west, and product Canadian industry with high tariffs. MacDonald hoped that this policy would unify the country both culturally and economically. Knowing that they had to prove themselves to the people of BC, the government hired Andrew Onderdonk, an American railway contractor, to begin building track eastward from Yale, BC, near the entrance to the Fraser Canyon.

Onderdonk’s reputation for efficiency and productivity proved correct, though some of his methods were controversial and life was difficult for the labourers working under him. He employed thousands of Chinese “navvies”, importing them from China and California despite the disapproval of much of the BC population. Chinese labourers lived separately from white workers in camps throughout the province, and were often given the riskiest jobs.

Railroad work could be dangerous. Hundreds of labourers, many of them Chinese, lost their lives blasting through rock using nitro-glycerine, an unstable explosive that was a cheap alternative to dynamite. Others died of scurvy during long winters. Laying track through the expanses of rock, bog, and muskeg was a miserable occupation for all who undertook it. Though alcohol was prohibited in workers’ camps, drinking became a common escape.

Despite the hardships of life along the main line, the building of the railway forged ahead through the 1880s. Track from Ontario and from BC extended steadily toward the prairies. The CPR was officially incorporated in 1881, and in 1882 a well known American rail executive named William C. Van Horne was appointed general manager of the company.

An imposing and authoritative figure, Van Horne oversaw the majority of the railway’s construction. On November 7, 1885, the railway’s last spike was driven into the ground at Craigellachie, BC. It now took only six days to travel from Montreal to British Columbia. At approximately 11,200 kilometres, the finished railway was the longest in the world. It had taken more than 12,000 men and 5,000 horses to complete it, and had transformed the face of western Canada.

The CPR forever changed the way of life of the First Nations peoples who had lived along the main route. In BC, Blackfoot and Cree people were displaced, their hunting grounds transformed beyond recognition. Although numerous treaties guaranteed that the tribes would not be forced to abandon traditional ways, the disappearance of buffalo and the introduction of foreign agricultural practices meant that many had little choice between change and starvation.

Some, like Cree Chief Poundmaker, recognized that the coming of the railway meant the inevitable end of an established way of life. Others like fellow Cree leader Piapot fought vigorously to preserve homes and traditions.

In other ways, the CPR became what MacDonald had hoped it would be: a route connecting the isolated settlements of Canada’s North West, bringing new settlers to uninhabited land and new life to stagnant economies. It was responsible in large part for the birth of Canada’s tourism industry as passenger trains and hotels became more and more luxurious as travellers enjoyed taking the scenic route.

In the process, the project had gained the support of many of its earlier opponents. Louis Riel’s second rebellion in 1885 had demonstrated the usefulness of the railway in transporting militia and military troops quickly across the country. The railway’s facilitation of Riel’s execution, one of the most divisive events in Canada’s history, was ironic considering its original purpose had been to unify the country. Nevertheless, many Canadian leaders hailed the effectiveness of the railway in upholding national security. Years later, the CPR was at the forefront of Canada’s efforts in the First and Second World Wars, transporting soldiers across the country and, in CPR steamships, across the Atlantic to Europe.

For better and for worse, the CPR changed Canada for all of its inhabitants. It boosted economies, reinforced national security, and took people places they had never been. It also cost the lives of hundreds of labourers, and displaced families and communities. Perhaps its greatest significance lies in this very complexity. In all its natural and cultural diversity, its strengths and its weaknesses, the CPR introduced Canada to itself.

Contributed by Helen Button
— 2008 University of Western Ontario Practicum Student with The History Group Inc.