The Canadian Pacific Railway

     The Canadian Pacific Railway is a transcontinental railway connecting the east coast to the west coast. After British Columbia joined confederation in 1871, it was promised that there would be a railway linking to the rest of Canada. At the time, this promise seemed extravagant, if not rash. No politician had a clear idea of the route that it would take and they did not know how much the railway would cost. The only major industrialist in Canada who had enough money to fund a railway was Sir Hugh Allan, whom has made this money by shipping and manufacturing, and also in railway building in eastern Canada. Allan and his American backers were not prepared to build a transcontinental railway because it would be far too difficult. The railways early construction was filled with controversy, overthrowing the Conservative government of John A. Macdonald in 1873 and forcing an election.

     There were many dangers for the workers of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The workers had to work long hours regardless of rain or shine. Explosives were needed to blow out parts of mountains to build the railway. This resulted in many workers being injured or killed on the job. Workers who were injured were often sent home with no compensation and families of workers who were killed often had no notice of what happened to their loved ones. The majority of workers were Chinese and English workers. Although they were doing the same amount of work, Chinese workers were paid less and given less food, because of this it caused them to be very weak due to their lack of nutrients and it made it hard for them to work to their fullest potential. 

     Canadians should be proud of this event because if it wasn’t for the railway, Canada would not be such a great country and we would not be as united as we are today. The railway did a fantastic job of connecting the east coast to the west coast. I chose this event because all my family lives on the east coast and I think it was good that they made a transportation system that would make it easy for me to visit them if i were living in that time period. I also chose this event because it is something that Canada is known for. We are known for having a railway that connects one side of the country to the other. I also chose this because if we did not have the Canadian Pacific Railway, our trading rights with the rest of the world would be cut off. The railway gives us an easy way to transport goods to countries overseas including countries in Europe and Asia.