a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
 
 

Railroad

Promoting settlement in the west became an important part of the Dominion government’s "National Policy" - the outstanding features of which would be the growth of central Canadian industry, the settlement of the west, and the construction of a transcontinental railway that would, it was hoped, link together a huge nation.

Between 1900 and 1918 over 20,000 miles of railways were laid down in Canada. In Alberta alone 4,657 miles were built between 1900 and 1930.

It was not until after the completion of the railway line to Alberta in 1885 and the suppressing of the Northwest Rebellion that any aggressive settlement began to occur in the west. Working conditions on the railroads were very brutal. In 1912 a foreign consul, with personal knowledge of conditions in Europe and South America, stated that he knew "of no other country where the rights of workmen have been so flagrantly abused as on railway construction in Canada.”

see Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway