Transcontinental Route Essay

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There were numerous purposes behind building a transcontinental route. The essential reason was to unite the shaping nation of Canada together. A new nation was being built; territories were merging, forming a new country. This union was called Confederation. A new Canadian government was formed, similar to the style of the British parliament that includes a House of Commons and a Senate.
The railway started to be worked on in 1871, however, politics, finances and mismanagement delayed the start of construction. The CPR was finished in the year of 1885. The development of the CPR started on the track from the East in Montreal reaching out crosswise over Canada to the Pacific Ocean. To lay the track, teams needed to cut trees and clear a wide …show more content…
MacDonald had big dreams for all of Canada. His dream consisted of a transcontinental British nation in North America. The issue with this dream is that it’s excessively costly. Over $100,000,000 would have to be invested into the railway, keeping in mind that Canada consisted of only 3.5 million people and wages were as low as $1 per day. (pg.8, National Dream)
The formation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was an extraordinary idea of how to stitch the scattered provinces and empty territories of the West together (pg.7, National Dream). The government promised the railway to British Columbia in order to lure that colony into the confederation of the other 4 provinces (pg.7 national dream). The government promised BC that the transcontinental route would be completed within 10 years, but this wasn’t an iron contract, yet it was more like a figure of speech (pg. 8-9, National Dream). This was MacDonald’s way of convincing BC in joining the …show more content…
Hugh Allan, a transportation tycoon, railway promoter, and financier wanted to take charge of assembling the CPR3. Allan secretly worked hand in hand with America to deliver the Canadian North West into the hands of the USA (pg.70 nation dream). Allan had his incentive to act in such a manner, if he would be the one building the CPR he would get a large amount of stock and 50,000 dollars (pg. 68 national

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