|
|
Guide Book to the Lands of Manitoba and Northwestern Railway, 1886
Archives of Manitoba, Advertising, 64.
Between 1878 and 1888, in response to Western complaints about the CPR's monopoly, the government of Manitoba issued charters for competing railways and passed the General Railway Act (1882). John A. Macdonald's conservatives disallowed the provincial charters. In doing so, the federal government, not only lost Western votes, it provoked sustained political agitation against the federal government on the issue of provincial rights, that included a struggle for “better terms” of union in confederation. The “better terms” argument was rooted in boundary issues and control over land resources within the Province. Manitoba at that time was the only province that did not control its land resources. The reason is obvious; if Manitoba had been given such control, the federal government could not have pursued the land grant component of the national policy; it could never have given North West lands over to the CPR.
W.L. Morton, Manitoba: A History, University of Toronto Press, Toronto & Buffalo, 1957, p. 213-215.
|
|
|
|
The Manitoba and Northwestern Railway Company Adverstisement of Land for Sale, 1887
Archives of Manitoba, Advertising, 57.
In 1888, after protracted negotiations with the CPR over compensation, the federal government agreed to stop disallowing Manitoba railway charters. The Canadian Pacific Railway monopoly was thus broken.
Competing railways, lured by the hope of profits and the incentive of generous land grants from the province, built railroads that in the end were not economically sustainable.
In 1900, the CPR purchased the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway. By 1903 it was expanding its branch lines into the Interlake region of Manitoba. The CPR also purchased additional locomotives and rolling stock to meet the challenges of competitors and to accommodate the rapidly expanding grain export market. It double-tracked its Winnipeg to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) and Winnipeg to Portage main lines to speed grain traffic. This expansion continued right up to World War I.
Lloyd Penner, “A History of Railroads in Manitoba” (Paper commissioned by the Transportation Heritage & Technology Centre), 2002, p. 26.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19
Next
|
|
