2. National Policy and the CPR

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B. All Aboard for the West →→ 1. Red River Settlement and Insurrection → 2. National Policy and the CPR → 3. North West Mounted Police → 4. Aboriginal Treaties → 5. North West Rebellion → 6. British Columbia → 7. A Western Home →→ C. Demand for Change

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Prairie Schooner on the Cariboo Road

Attention now turned to British Columbia. Originally, it had been the smallest British North American colony, with a scattered population of ten thousand people. The Cariboo gold rush of the 1850s tripled BC's population. As the bonanza ended, serious economic problems emerged. British Columbia had borrowed over one million dollars from British banks during the boom times. Even as the population was declining, the colonial government saw half of all revenues going to discharge the interest on the debt. Clearly, something had to be done.

One option, given the ties of geography and trade, was to accept annexation to the United States. Prominent Americans such as William Seward and Charles Sumner strongly supported such an approach. In 1869, an Annexation Manifesto was circulated throughout the colony. However, only one hundred and forty people, mostly merchants and bankers, signed it. The province was, after all, British Columbia.

What about joining the new Dominion of Canada? There were the challenges of transportation and communication to overcome, and the obvious barrier of distance and the mountains. Furthermore, many in British Columbia believed that the Canadian market was simply too small to ensure their economic prosperity. The current government, headed by Governor Frederick Seymour, was opposed to such a rash idea as union with Canada.

With Seymour's death in 1869, his replacement, the new pro-Confederation Governor, Anthony Musgrave, began to turn the tide. The critical player, however, was a Canadian from Nova Scotia who called himself Amor de Cosmos ("lover of the universe"). And the critical factor for getting support for Confederation was the promise of a railway to the east.

Amor de Cosmos - his real name was William Smith - was the founder of Victoria's newspaper, the "British Colonist", and chief organizer of the Canadian Party. He worked effectively to make British Columbia the sixth province of Canada. On September 14, 1868, he called a meeting of the Confederation League at Yale; the group voted for immediate admission of BC into Canada.

Joseph Trutch, BC Delegate to Ottawa, 1871

When Canada acquired Rupert's Land, the last impediment to BC's entry into Canada was removed. In the spring of 1870, a motion in the Legislative Assembly to join the Dominion of Canada received unanimous support, and BC's delegates, Joseph Trutch, John Sebastian Helmcken and John Carrall, were dispatched to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of union.

The 'bargaining' was as easy as it was unexpected. While Macdonald was indisposed, Francis Hincks and George Étienne Cartier met with the provincial delegates and essentially give them everything they wanted. And more.

According to Helmcken's Diary of the negotiations, the Canadians were determined to create a transcontinental nation: "I am to tell from Sir George Cartier that it is necessary to be Anti-Yankee. That we have to oppose their damned system-that we can and will build up a northern power, which they cannot do with their principles, that the Govt. of ... the Dominion is determined to do it."

Amor de Cosmos

Under the British Columbia Terms of Union, Ottawa assumed the provincial debt as well as promising to pay an annual grant. British Columbia retained control over most public lands. Finally, the three delegates were shocked when, after asking for nothing more than a wagon road to be built through the mountains for the time being, Cartier promised them a quick start to a transcontinental railway.

On July 20, 1871, British Columbia officially became Canada's sixth province.

Prince Edward Island Coat of Arms

Admission of BC

Prince Edward Island Enters Confederation

The territorial expansion of Canada continued two years later, when in 1873, Prince Edward Island entered the Dominion. From the start, the people of the Maritimes were lukewarm toward the notion of Confederation. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island had already rejected the idea. Nova Scotia was offered better terms and a cabinet portfolio for native son, Joseph Howe to keep it from retracting its original agreement.

PEI was now beginning to change its mind as well. A scandal-ridden cross-island railway had mushroomed the colonial debt from $250,000 in 1864 to over $4 million ten years later. Added to that was the erosion of their tax base. The fact that most of the island was owned by absentee landowners meant that PEI would continue to remain in an economic backwater unless something were done.

Macdonald agreed to assume the island's debt, pay a healthy subsidy, and buy out the absentee landowners for close to a million dollars. Canada also promised that there would be a regular communications link between the island and the mainland. The fact that there was only one dissenting vote in the colonial legislature indicated the generous nature of the terms. Canada's seventh - and smallest - province officially entered Confederation on July 1, 1873.

In the same year, one of the most enduring symbols of Canada was born. The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was Macdonald's idea to provide law and order on the Canadian prairies. Their immediate task was to rid the area of illegal, American, whisky traders. After the 1873 Cypress Hill massacre, when thirty-six Assiniboine Native People were ambushed and killed by Americans, the need for policing of the area became more urgent.

So too did the need to provide relief for the Aboriginal population, who suffered because of declining buffalo herds and a smallpox epidemic. The NWMP, a quasi-military force, was modeled on the Irish constabulary. Their mandate was to patrol the border, end smuggling, maintain law and order, gain the confidence of the Aboriginal peoples, and end the illegal whisky trade.

In July 1874, the original contingent began the famous "Great March" 1600 kilometers westward from Manitoba to Fort Whoop-Up, which was close to the American border, and then north to Fort Edmonton.

The Numbered Treaties

Métis Hunting Camp 1873

Gaining the confidence of the indigenous peoples on the Prairies was a difficult task for the new Force. They were the front-line representatives of a federal government that held a radically different viewpoint and set of aims.

Métis Making Pemmican

A basic clash of cultures and values meant suspicion and distrust. When Ottawa took control of Rupert's Land, it also agreed to assume responsibility for the well being of the Aboriginal Peoples. While they simply wanted to be left alone and preserve their culture and way of life, the Canadian authorities wanted to open up their land for expansion and settlement. That was a recipe for disaster. Rather than following the American example, which created chaos and violence, Ottawa decided to negotiate treaties with the Aboriginal Nations prior to the arrival of railways and white settlers.

While most Canadians saw these treaties as a bridge to progress and an end to native land claims, the indigenous peoples saw them very differently. They saw them as a way of ensuring their cultural survival in the face of white settlement. They saw them as a way to survive by farming and grazing cattle now the buffalo were gone. They saw them as contracts between nations, while most Canadians viewed them as simple bills of sale.

Between 1871 and 1877, seven numbered treaties were signed. They were generally one-sided, since most of the people were near starvation with no buffalo left. They involved a lump sum payment for the transfer of Indian title to the Crown along with agreements about farming instruction, services, and resources. Canada failed to deliver most of these services properly, and most Native People were forced onto inferior reserve land that was difficult to farm. In all, eleven treaties were negotiated by 1921.

National Dream & Pacific Scandal

The New North West Passage

Allan Line Steamship

Hugh Allan

Expansion westward could only mean one thing - a transcontinental railway. Such a notion appeared incredible, if not impossible. The builders faced difficulties that seemed overwhelming. Obtaining political approval was a question mark. Pulling together the necessary financial backing looked even harder. What route and which passes were best? And what about the sheer distance of over five thousand kilometers? The barriers of mountains, muskeg, forest, and prairies seemed insurmountable. The task was astounding and seemingly, unattainable. In a vast land with under four million people, stretching from sea to sea, how could the political, financial, and engineering obstacles be overcome?

The benefits, however, of a transcontinental railway were immense. It would fulfill the Canadian promise to British Columbia. It would unite the nation, creating bands of steel to link the new Dominion east to west. It would overcome the natural north-south tug of geography. It would greatly improve transportation and communication, and give the British Empire the shortest route to the Orient across North America. Trade and the overall economy would benefit. The country would be easier to defend. Finally, a railway to the Pacific would greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of American railroads moving north into unoccupied western lands.

Mackenzie Promises Miss BC a Railway

Nevertheless, the idea of a transcontinental railway almost died before it got off the ground. The contract to construct the railway was a risky but potentially lucrative proposal. Not surprisingly a number of bidders emerged, including a group in Boston who wanted to carry Canada's transcontinental line across the St. Lawrence at Ogdensburg, and bypass Montreal. The chairman of the Commons Railway Committee, George-Étienne Cartier, was having none of that. In 1873, the first CPR contract was awarded to a Montreal syndicate headed by Sir Hugh Allan. Allan was owner of the Allan Line of steamships that brought immigrants to Canada, was a friend of the government, and held the lucrative transatlantic contract for carrying the Royal Mail.

Alexander Mackenzie

The roof fell in on the first CPR contract during the 1872 election campaign, when telegrams from John A. Macdonald, stolen from Allan's lawyer's office safe, likely by supporters of the Boston bid, confirmed that Allan had given large sums of money to the Conservative Party for the election campaign.

The opposition linked the campaign funding to the CPR contract, and the so-called "Pacific Scandal" led to a parliamentary inquiry. After a five hour speech in the House of Commons, Macdonald resigned in disgrace.

The Pacific Scandal dominated the 1873 campaign. Alexander Mackenzie easily won on the promise of honesty and integrity. He became Canada's first Liberal prime minister.

The BC railway project was put on hold as Mackenzie's term in office coincided with the onset of a worldwide depression. There simply was not enough money and the risk, considerable in economically good times, was not possible for any company to carry in a depressed economy. The plans for the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) were shelved. That did not mean that nothing was done.

For ten years, under the direction of skilled engineer Sanford Fleming, surveyors marked out the route for the coming railway. They charted out routes that have become legendary in Canadian history - Kicking Horse, Eagle, and Roger's passes. They even decided on Port Moody as the western terminus of this mammoth undertaking.

John A. Macdonald, ever the wily politician, chafed in opposition. He and his Conservative Party were out of office. And he wanted back in. By 1878, Mackenzie's time was almost up and though he had some notable achievements – his 1874 Dominion Elections Act brought in the secret ballot, and an 1875 act created the Supreme Court of Canada - he was anything but a sure thing for a second term. The worldwide depression cast too much of a pall over his time in office. Added to that, central Canadian manufacturers were clamoring for tariffs to protect their fledging industries from American competitors, and the Liberals in those days were free traders.

1878 Election Poster

National Policy & the Completion of the Line

Macdonald recognized his opportunity for a political rebirth. He decided to appeal to a growing nationalist sentiment. He criticized the Liberals' economic dogma of continental free trade, because the Americans were unwilling to restore reciprocity to Canada. Instead, Macdonald offered high protective tariffs to keep American imports out and build up 'infant' Canadian industries. But that was not all.

Macdonald's National Policy also called for two other related policies. He called for increased immigration and western settlement to forestall any lingering American claims to the Canadian west. This would create a huge western breadbasket, and boost the home market for Canadian manufacturers. The other plank - a transcontinental railway built along an all-Canadian route - would be the lifeline that would make the whole system function.

The National Policy was certainly an unqualified political success as Macdonald and the Conservatives swept back into office.

Macdonald's National Policy

A couple of years later, on February 16, 1881, the Macdonald government incorporated a new Canadian Pacific Railway, to get the stalled transcontinental railway moving, and on October 21, awarded the CPR Charter to a new Montreal Syndicate, headed by George Stephen, president of the Bank of Montreal and his cousin Donald Smith, chief commissioner of the Hudson's Bay Company. The risk was high but the terms were generous: $25 million cash, 10 million hectares of land, lucrative tax exemptions, ownership of all existing lines built to date as part of the Pacific railway system (estimated at well over $25 million), and a twenty year monopoly.

The venture was still risky, and the CPR Syndicate nearly went bankrupt several times in the early years. They were saved by their part ownership of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad in Minnesota, the end of a grasshopper plague, and a boom in demand for land by European farmers wanting to settle in North America.

The actual construction was an engineering miracle. It has been praised in song by the likes of Gordon Lightfoot ("The Canadian Railroad Trilogy") and in word by Pierre Berton ("The National Dream" and "The Last Spike.")

CPR reaches Calgary

Van Horne

The man principally responsible for building the 5 000 kilometer marvel was American-born William Van Horne, the CPR's general manager. From the spring to the autumn of 1882, three thousand workers, working ten hours a day, completed the section from Winnipeg to Swift Current. The following year, the CPR went all the way to Calgary.

The navvies building the line in Northern Ontario had to contend with the muskeg, swamp, granite outcrops and dense forest. Even worse was the dangerous work in British Columbia. Supervised by an American engineer, Andrew Onderdonk, it called for the blasting of tunnels through mountains as well as the building of six hundred bridges and trestles.

Finding an insufficient number of workers, Onderdonk imported seven thousand Chinese labourers, paying them only a dollar a day for backbreaking and dangerous worker. Onderdonk himself admitted that three Chinese workers were killed for every kilometer of track laid.

On November 7, 1885, high in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia near Rogers Pass, named after its discoverer, Major A. B. Rogers, one of the most famous pictures in Canadian history was taken. With a background of owners in their suits and workers in their rough clothing, Donald Smith hammered in "the last spike" of the CPR.

Chinese Labourers in the Selkirks

Official Last Spike Ceremony at Craigellachie

CPR Workers Holding their Own Ceremony

Van Horne addressed the crowd: "All I can say is that the work has been done well in every way". The longest railway in the world, the bands of steel that would link the young nation together, and the testament to a united, common purpose was complete.

Sidelight: Fleming Invents Standard Time

In 1878, Canadian civil engineer Sandford Fleming devised a new system of standard time zones that are still in use today.

Until about 100 years ago most towns reckoned local noon when the sun was directly overhead, and a train traveller could leave Montreal at 12:00 noon and get to Kingston at 11:53 am. In order to clean up railway timetables, on February 8, 1879, Fleming proposed to the Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Knowledge in Toronto, that the world be divided into 24 equal time zones, with a "Standard Time" in each zone, and with Greenwich, England, as the "prime meridian" (the base for calculations). On November 18, 1883 all the North American railway companies adopted his idea. A year later, at a conference in Washington, D.C., 25 countries adopted the Fleming proposition, and on January 1, 1885 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was established as the meridian of his system.

Fleming's February 8, 1879 speech in Toronto

Fleming was born at Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland, January 7, 1827. He came to Canada in 1845 at age 17 and settled in Peterborough, Ontario, working as a railway surveyor, mostly for the Grand Trunk Railway.

In 1851, Fleming designed the Threepenny Beaver, the first Canadian postage stamp. In 1855 he was hired as the Chief Engineer of the Northern Railway of Canada. In 1858 he proposed a coast to coast railway line spanning all of British North America.

In the 1860s he surveyed and planned much of the Intercolonial Railway linking the Maritime provinces with Quebec. From 1871-76 he started the survey on the Canadian Pacific Railway and organized an expedition to the Pacific that included naturalist John Macoun and Presbyterian minister George Monro Grant. In 1880, Fleming retired from surveying to become Chancellor of Queen's University in Kingston Ontario. In 1885 he was present when Donald Smith drove in the Last Spike in Craigellachie, British Columbia, as a CPR board member.