The Birth (and Brief Death) of the CPR SS10 – Mr. Bilan

From Sea to shining sea John A Macdonald, the first prime minister, had a dream that Canada would one day become a nation that would stretch across North America, rivalling the United States In order to do this, he believed a railway that connected the eastern provinces to the Pacific Ocean in order to transport goods and settlers across the country was necessary He believed that if this didn’t happen, American settlers would move into the vast, sparsely populated regions of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territories, allowing the United States to annex, or take over the land Furthermore, British Columbia had agreed to join Confederation in 1871, but only if the railroad connected the province to the rest of the country

Financing the National Dream To build the railroad, Macdonald needed outside backers to help build and finance the project; his government did not intend to build and pay for the railroad themselves In return, whoever did this would receive financial benefits from the government after the railway was finished In Canada, the only man with enough money to do this was Hugh Allan, a shipping and manufacturing tycoon In 1871, Francis Hincks, Macdonald’s Minister of Finance, asked Allan to help build and pay for the railroad Allan then created the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) company to begin the project

The “Canadian” Pacific Railroad? However, this was not really a ‘Canadian’ company, the CPR was actually controlled by the Northern Pacific Railway, headquartered in Minnesota and owned by Jay Cooke, an American businessman Both Cooke and Allan did not intend to build a true Canadian railway that passed through Canada and the North-West Territories because they believed it would be too difficult They simply wanted to build a branch line from the Northern Pacific Railway that would stretch into where British Columbia is now

The Northern Pacific Railroad Looking at this map, would this technically meet the promise made by Macdonald to British Columbia if the railway extended into BC? If this vision had happened instead of a true Canadian railroad, what do you think might have happened? Remember Macdonald’s concerns regarding Rupert’s Land and the North-West Territories

Dirty Money In 1872, Macdonald called the first election in Canada since Confederation. The two main parties were his Conservative Party and the Liberal Party MacDonald realized that he needed more money in order to successfully campaign to and reach out to voters during the election Thus, MacDonald asked George-Etienne Cartier to ask Hugh Allan if he would agree to finance Macdonald’s next election campaign in exchange for a guaranteed contract to build the CPR

Fallout from the Scandal One of Cartier’s letters to Allan was publicized, where it was revealed to the public that Allan had been rewarded the CPR contract in exchange for financing the Conservative campaign This made it seem like MacDonald had accepted a bribe in order to secure campaign funding In response, MacDonald stepped down as Prime Minster in 1873, and the leader of the Liberal Party, Alexander Mackenzie, became the new Prime Minister Mackenzie called for another election in 1874, which the Liberals won

More Fallout MacDonald losing power also meant that Hugh Allan would no longer be responsible for building the Canadian Pacific Railroad What effects do you think this would have on the overall project? Because Allan was no longer involved in the railway, it would no longer be under the control of Jay Cooke and his Northern Pacific Railway While construction was stalled for now, the Pacific Scandal may have ensured that the Canadian Pacific Railway would ultimately pass through Canada After the 1874 election, Mackenzie at first tried to continue with the CPR, but he himself did not believe it was truly necessary, believing it was too expensive to focus on

Mackenzie, the Railway, and BC Because Allan was no longer involved in the CPR, the government was now trying to pay for the railroad itself Furthermore, an economic depression had hit all of North America in 1873, severely reducing the amount of money the government had available and halting construction on the railway In British Columbia, this caused outrage across the new province Why do you think this was the case? Although 84% of voters in in BC voted Liberal in 1872, the potential lack of a railway connecting them to Canada caused many people there to consider becoming a direct colony of Britain again or even joining the United States Ultimately, Mackenzie’s decision to stop building the railroad would hurt him in the future