By the time Donald Smith drove in the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Craigellachie, British Columbia (which joined the Dominion on the condition that a railway be built) on November 7th, 1885, 4,600 kilometers of single track had been laid by thousands of workers (15, 000 of whom were poorly paid and treated Chinese labourers) through rock, bogs and forests, Canada underwent two changes of government (due to a scandal that threatened to - ahem - derail the project) and added two more provinces to the Dominion.
Where Confederation united a country politically, the railway joined the country physically.
No comments:
Post a Comment