The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada, 1896-1914

Book excerpt: A large federal cash subsidy aided CPR construction of the Crows Nest Pass Railway from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Nelson, British Columbia. The line, completed in late 1898, was designed to en-courage mining and smelting in the Kootenays and to link this region with Central Canada. From 1989 to 1914 the Great Northern Railroad in the United States also built lines into southern British Columbia to tap this valuable mining traffic. The CPR completed a line to Vancouver in 1915, by which time it dominated the regional traffic. However, it still faced competition for this traffic from the Great Northern which had allied itself with the Canadian Northern Railway. John Eagle examines the lengthy and bitter conflict which resulted between the two railways. Eagle provides the first scholarly analysis of the Crows Nest Pass Agreement of 1897. Under this historic agreement, the CPR stimulated prairie agriculture by lowering its freight rates on grain, matching both the lower rates of the Canadian Northern on grain and the rates on wheat established under the Manitoba Agreement of 1901. The development of southern British Columbia also opened a new market for prairie grain and cattle. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada challenges the prevailing view that CPR land policies were designed primarily to promote settlement in order to generate traffic for the railway. Eagle argues that the railway adopted policies which maximized profits from its agricultural lands so that proceeds from prairie land sales became an important source of revenue for the company.