The Canadian Pacific
Railway
The Steel Ribbon…
The Story of the CPR
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The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A.
Macdonald, dreams of a railroad that would
connect the vast areas of Canada
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This railway would help transport people from
the East to West and vice versa
Also, it would be a great hand in moving new
immigrants from the East coast to the vast areas
of land in the West
With this railway, farmers from the West could
bring their products to the East
What an excellent idea!
After being re-elected in 1872, Macdonald and the
conservatives decide to begin on this project
 The Canadian Pacific Railway, under Sir Hugh Allan, take
over the construction
 But then something went wrong…
 Word got to Canadians that Allan and
his friends had given Macdonald lots of
cash to help him get elected, in return for
Macdonald to guarantee his company the
right to build this railway.
This was known as “The Pacific
Scandal”
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This ‘bribe’ , ladies and gentlemen, cost
Macdonald his job…for now at least…
Macdonald resigned, and the Liberal leader,
Alexander Mackenzie took over as Prime
Minister
Mackenzie saw this whole railway thing as a
waste of time, too good to be true, and far too
expensive
During Mackenzie’s 5 year term, a great
economic depression set in…
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Canadian crops were attacked by insects (weevils
and grasshoppers)
Many small businesses ran out of money
because they could not compete with cheaper
goods from the United States
The people of Canada blamed Mackenzie’s
government…
 1878…Macdonald’s
National
Policy…
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Keep cheaper American goods out, and
encourage Canadians to buy domestic products
Fill the rich prairie lands with settlers
Have the settlers of the West buy products from
the East, and vice versa
And most importantly, continue the
construction of the CPR.
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The Canadian people re-elected Macdonald in
1878.
By 1880, the construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway is back in full throttle under the
management of George Stephen and Donald A.
Smith
So before we go on, a little side note…
 William Cornelius Van Horne – Railway supervisor
who proved his success through his
accomplishment on the CPR
His idea was to work on the railroad at different
places
 We must understand that building the railroad was
not a simple process…It entailed surveying the
route by land and by sea (through canoeing), and
laying the track
 Spikers would hammer in steel spikes to lay down
the foundation for the railway
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Building problems…
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In Northern Ontario: cutting down hills, filling
in swamps, blasting through granite, lowering
lake levels
“two hundred miles of engineering impossibility” Van Horne
Some swamps were really hard to get through,
with mosquitoes and blackflies distracting the
workers
The Granite had to be blasted through with
explosives, and many workers lost their lives
doing this
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The Prairies: Even though the prairies were a
little easier to get through because the land was
more flat, it was still hard to lay the foundations
for a railway
Van Horne fired any workers who complained,
because he was determined to finish as much of
this project as possible in the least amount of
time
Stations along the prairies were used to store
material and different gangs of workers were
responsible for different parts of the railway
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The Mountains: This was the most difficult and
dangerous part of building the railway
Trestles (framework used as a bridge to support
the railway tracks) had to be set up and built
Sometimes, workers had to blast through rocks
to make paths
Other times, workers had to walk along narrow
paths and on the edges of cliffs
It was so dangerous that some claimed
“every kilometre of tunnel and track was stained with
blood along the British Columbia section of the line”
Meet the Builders…
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The workers of the railway were called Navvies. They
came from all over the world. They included: Americans,
English, Scots, Irish, Italians, Swedes, Chinese, and
Canadians
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Chinese workers: Andrew Onderdonk, workers
contractor in BC, brought in thousands of
Chinese workers
These workers were often treated very badly and
lived in terrible conditions
They also faced a lot of racism and
discrimination
Often they were given the most dangerous jobs
They were ridiculously underpaid
The Aboriginal Point of View…
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The aboriginals were very unhappy when the
path of the railway swallowed parts of their land
Many on the Blackfoot (Siksika) reserve were
very upset when it was decided that the railway
would pass through their reserve, even though
Treaty 7 had promised them full ownership of
the reserve
Father Lacombe, a missionary, was able to
diffuse this situation by promising Crowfoot,
and the aboriginals, government compensation
And, of course…Money
Problem$
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By 1885, bug parts of the railway were
completed, but it was far from done
Not many people wanted to invest in this
project, just yet, and the opposition in
parliament were still against the idea of lending
anymore money to this project
Workers were scared that they would not be
getting paid, and began to strike
However, it’s a Happy Ending…
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George Stephen and Donald Smith were able to
put together 1 million dollars, and Macdonald
secured another government loan to finish off
the project
At 9:22 a.m. on November 7, 1885, the last spike
was hammered into the Canadian Pacific
Railway. The Ribbon of Steel was finally in
place…
Donald Smith, the bearded man in
the centre of the picture, hammers
in the last spike of the CPR
First Passenger Train Ride…
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At 8:00 p.m. on June 28, 1886, the first passenger train
left Montreal. 139 hours later, it arrived at Port Moody,
British Columbia, on July 4, 1886. The train was only
one minute late
This day was known as “red letter” day
First Trains
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Consisted of a baggage car, a luxurious first-class day car
and sleeper, the dining car, and the colonist car
The colonist cars would become very important as they
transported new immigrants to Western Canada
As The Years Went On…
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The Mounties faced several attempts of robberies
over the years. In one case near Kamloops, BC, a
group of bandits stopped the train at gunpoint.
The Mounties ended up arresting them two days
later
Over the years, Van Horne promoted the railway
through advertisements on the comfort of the
trains, and CPR hotels. Artists were encouraged to
paint pictures which were sent across the world
Questions…
Please answer number 1-5 on page 169
 Additional questions:
1) Why was the construction of the CPR so
important to British Columbia?
2) What kind of hardships did the Chinese
workers endure?
3) Overall, was the CPR beneficial for Canadians
or not? Why?
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