The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is a freight railway corporation in Canada, operating a rail network stretching from Vancouver to Montreal. It also serves major cities in the northern United States, such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York. Its head office is in Calgary, Alberta.

As a historical reference, the name refers to the railway that was built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1871 and 1885.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 build the railway through Canada, 1000 miles (1,600 km) 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. Because 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 1881 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, William 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 construction of this railroad is celebrated in the popular song by Gordon Lightfoot, The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. 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 Crowsnest 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, which 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. In addition, there were no talks of the Chinese immigrants ever working on the railway.

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 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 Château Lake Louise, on the shore of Lake Louise in Alberta.

, Canadian culture, History of Chinese immigration to Canada

External links

• CP Rail Official Website (http://www.cpr.ca)
• Canadian Railway History and Stories (http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains)

See also

• Big Hill Connaught Tunnel Field Hill Rogers Pass Spiral Tunnels Selkirk locomotive