When I was in Canada for the first time in 1884, the Canadian
Pacific Railway was not completed, and there was no through
railway connection between the Maritime Provinces, "Upper" and
"Lower" Canada, and the Pacific Coast, though, of course, in 1884
those old-fashioned terms for the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec
had been obsolete for some time. Since the Federation of the
Dominion in 1867, the opening of the Trans-Continental railway has
been the most potent factor in the knitting together of Canada,
and has developed the resources of the Dominion to an extent which
even the most enthusiastic of the original promoters of the C.P.R.
never anticipated. When British Columbia threw in its lot with the
Dominion in 1871, one of the terms upon which the Pacific Province
insisted was a guarantee that the Trans-Continental railway should
be completed in ten years--that is, in 1881. Two rival Companies
received in 1872 charters for building the railway; the result was
continual political intrigue, and very little construction work.
British Columbia grew extremely restive under the continual
delays, and threatened to retire from the Dominion.
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