Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia

The Canadian Pacific Railway is a Canadian Class I Railroad that stretches from Montreal, Quebec to Vancouver, British Columbia. The BC portion of the railway was constructed between 1881 and 1885, fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. For decades, it was the only practical means of long–distance passenger transport in Canada.

The Confederation League (which included such figures as Amor De Cosmos, John Robson, and Robert Beaven) led the chorus pressing for the colony to join Canada, which had been created out of three British North American colonies in 1867 (the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). Several factors motivated this drive—fear of annexation by the United States, overwhelming debt created by rapid population growth, the need for government-funded services to support this population, and the economic depression caused by the end of the gold rush. With the agreement by the Canadian government to extend the Canadian Pacific Railway to British Columbia and to assume the colony's debt, British Columbia became the sixth province to join Confederation on 20 July 1871. The borders of the province were not completely settled until 1903, however, when the province's territory shrank somewhat after the Alaska boundary dispute settled the vague boundary of the Alaska Panhandle.

Sir John A. Macdonald's government fell in 1872 due to corruption in railway contracts. Alexander Mackenzie succeeded Macdonald as Prime Minister and embarked on a very slow building process in Manitoba. At this time there was also a severe financial depression, due to the Credit Mobilier scandal and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the US. Also at this time, the government of Canada embarked on many surveys across the Rocky Mountains searching for the best route. Half a dozen routes were investigated, among them Pine Pass, Rocky Mountain Canyon, Yellowhead and Kootenay Crossing. These myriad surveys took time, effort and money—money which would have been better spent on just one or two surveys.

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