Building Canada's Railroad

Hello LINC 7 Students,

On the weekend, please read this blog and then watch this 10-minute video about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) across Canada. Then answer the questions about the video. (You can watch the video with the subtitles on. :)

The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task originally undertaken as "the National Dream" by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald.

The government wanted to build a railway linking the west and the east within 10 years of July 1871. Macdonald (seen below) saw it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent.

First, the government had to make a contract with a company to build the railroad.

Competition for the lucrative (= money-making!) contract to build the railway was intense, and in 1872, wealthy railway promoter Sir Hugh Allan (photo below) was awarded the contract..

However, Allan had also contributed around $350,000 to the Conservative party's election campaign!

When this became public knowledge in 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald's government was forced to resign. This was called the Pacific Scandal.

 

Here's another good link to the History of the Railway.

This is a long PDF file, but please read pages 4, 5 and 6.

You can skim and scan through the rest of the document, and get an idea of the various stages of building our national railway. :)