As well as being paid less, Chinese workers were given the most dangerous tasks, such as handling the explosive nitroglycerin used to break up solid rock. Due to the harsh conditions they faced, hundreds of Chinese Canadians working on the railway died from accidents, winter cold, illness and malnutrition. Although Chinese Canadian workers faced and overcame great obstacles to help build the CPR, they were left out of the national celebration surrounding its completion.
Many people have pointed out the lingering injustice captured in that image: there is not a single Chinese Canadian worker in the photograph, even though Chinese Canadian labourers suffered, toiled and died building the railway that has come to symbolize the unity of Canada from coast to coast.
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Section Navigation. Did you know? When the CPR was finished in , the government passed the Chinese Immigration Act , which established a head tax for anyone of Chinese origin entering the country. Although sections of the track were not quite complete, the section from Callander to Port Arthur Thunder Bay , Ontario, was used to move troops westward during the North-West Resistance , though it was not quite complete.
During construction, the CPR became involved in the sale and settlement of land , the acquisition of the Dominion Express Company and the acceptance of commercial telegraph messages The company provided its own sleeping and dining cars on trains and constructed tourist hotels e.
This foothold on the tourist industry benefited the CPR later in its international development of hotels, steamships and airlines see Hotel ; Tourism. In the first decades of the 20th century, the job of a sleeping car porter was one of the few positions available to Black men in Canada. Sleeping car porters were railway employees who attended to passengers aboard sleeping cars.
While the position carried respect and prestige for Black men in their communities, the work demanded long hours for little pay. Porters could be fired suddenly and were often subjected to racist treatment. Following construction, the greatest challenge facing the CPR was to develop business to make the line self-sustaining. Though settlement proceeded rapidly in the wake of the rail lines, the population in western Canada was insufficient to sustain the line fully for many years.
To increase business, the corporation became very active in promoting trade in the Pacific. Within days of the arrival of the first train on the west coast in , sailing vessels chartered by the CPR began to arrive from Japan, bringing tea, silk and curios. By , the company had secured a contract from the British government to carry the imperial mails from Hong Kong to Britain via Canada. The result was the purchase of three ocean passenger-cargo vessels, forerunners of the present-day fleet. Other services expanded simultaneously.
Attempts to capture traffic from the western American states were made with the construction of a line to North Dakota and the eventual consolidation of what is now the Soo Line Railroad Company in the United States. Branch lines were greatly extended to feed traffic to the East-West main line. Rapid settlement followed construction of branches in southern Manitoba , in Saskatchewan from Regina to Prince Albert , and in Alberta from Calgary North to Strathcona Edmonton in Expansion into the Kootenay mining region of southern British Columbia involved the acquisition of a railway charter that included a smelter at Trail, BC.
This was the nucleus of the CPR's involvement in mining and metallurgy , formalized by the formation of Cominco Limited in , a CP-controlled company in , Cominco was acquired by Teck, another mining company. After , it became known as Canadian Pacific Steamships Limited. Between and , the CPR increased its trackage from approximately 11, km to 17, km. More than half of the new track was in the Prairie provinces, and it was intended both to provide branch lines into areas of need and to ensure that the CPR would remain competitive in relation to the developing transcontinental lines of the Canadian Northern Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
The widespread expansion of the company, much of it under the presidency of T. Shaughnessy , placed a heavy drain on company resources, but continuance of the National Policy , with its substantial tariffs, meant continuing high freight rates in the West. Attacks on these rates in helped to bring about the defeat of the Conservatives.
The Liberals reduced rates with the Crow's Nest Pass Agreement in and, under the Manitoba Grain Act of , required railways to provide loading platforms for farmers. Charters were also granted to the Canadian Northern Railway to develop the huge area of northern prairie left vacant by the CPR. The CNR also competed with the CPR in hotels, telegraphs, steamships and express services as well as railway services.
Despite this massive, government-supported competition, CPR survived as a commercial enterprise. During the Second World War it provided not only transportation , but also the production of armaments and materiel in its own shops. During the conflict, much of its merchant fleet was commandeered for military transport purposes, resulting in the loss of 12 vessels. It was later expanded with the purchase of Wardair.
A rigorously competitive market and government regulation caused significant changes to the airline industry in the s. It promised to give them cash payments. It promised to give them tools. It promised to provide medical care. It promised to provide education. And it promised them hunting and fishing rights. These are only some of the promises that were made. The Numbered Treaties are extremely controversial.
The legacy of the Numbered Treaties is a tragic one for First Nation peoples. The Numbered Treaties have impacted First Nation peoples culturally, legally and economically. In , Prime Minister John A. Macdonald promised to complete the transcontinental railway. The railway was very important for the success of Canada as a nation.
It would transport immigrant settlers to the Prairies and British Columbia. It would transport goods from west to east and east to west. And it would stop Americans from laying claim to the Prairies. The CPR faced two very big problems as soon as it was founded. It did not have enough money. And it did not have enough workers. The government solved the first problem. It provided millions of dollars to the CPR. The second problem was solved by employing Chinese workers.
The CPR employed approximately 15, Chinese workers. They were the primary workers who built the railway in British Columbia. Hundreds died working in unsafe conditions.
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