Canadian Pacific Research Articles

Labor relations and technological change at Canadian Pacific Railway

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun Long before the white man and long before the wheel When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

The Lord’s Distant Vineyard: A History of the Oblates and the Catholic Community in British Columbia (review)

Until very recently, the history of the Catholic Church in Canada's Pacific Northwest has received very little attention from scholars residing east of the Rocky Mountains. In some ways, the omission of British Columbia from a "national narrative" has been typical in many branches of Canadian historiography, not just church history. Despite excellent local microstudies undertaken by British Columbians themselves--Jacqueline Gresko, Rod Fowler, the late Tom Lascelles, O.M.I., Edith Down, S.S.A., or Bob Stewart--religious life on the Pacific slope has been generally treated within the context of the fur trade, missions for First Nations Peoples, or the advanced rate of secularization in British Columbia, Canada's leading province for persons declaring "no religion" on the national census. Over the past decade The Western Oblate History Project has done much to expand our knowledge of Roman Catholic Church development in the Pacific Northwest. Vincent McNally's monograph, published under the auspices of Oblate Project, is a sweeping and passionately written overview of the history of the Catholic Church in British Columbia and will justifiably become the standard reference work for professional historians, students, and those just simply interested in religion, missiology, or the Canadian west.

Regionalism, W. L. Morton, and the Writing of Western Canadian History, 1870–1885

In attempting to imagine and to define Canada--a persistent, almost obsessive, intellectual exercise among CANADIANS--analysts invariably come up against the of For regionalism has been a pervasive concept and factor in Canada's evolution. Regions existed long before Canada became a nation in 1867, and have continued to be an integral part of the country since Confederation. The of in Canada, therefore, recalls the penetrating comment by the distinguished literary critic Northrop Frye that identity so far as it affects the creative imagination, is not a 'Canadian' at all but a question. (1) The regional question is, however, a complex one. Despite its pervasiveness, no consensus exists as to how to define regionalism or what constitutes a region. To date, four dominant views of regionalism exist within the Canadian context. (2) In the first part of my paper, I will sketch out these four perspectives, using the Prairies as my chief example for illustrative purposes. Then in the second part of my paper, I will examine how the most distinguished Prairie historian, W.L. Morton, applied these four perspectives of the region in his historical analysis of the in Prairie history, the integration of the Prairie West into Confederation in the period between the acquisition of the North West by the Canadian government in 1869-70 and the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. Morton maintained throughout his historical writings on the Prairie West that the incorporation of the West into Confederation was a decisive moment in Prairie history--what he called an initial bias --that altered the direction of the region's history from one associated predominantly with fur trading to one based on agricultural settlement, that integrated the region into Canada, and that shaped every aspect of the subsequent history of the region after the period 1870 to 1885. In his attempt to understand this important period in Prairie history, Morton used a variety of perspectives including aspects of the four approaches to regionalism set out below. The first classification of regions in Canada is what geographers refer to as regionalism. Regions are classified according to a common feature, most often a common physical environment (although some analysts have looked to other distinguishing features besides topography, such as climate, ethnicity, or voting behavior as means to differentiate one formal region from another). This is the traditional and the most pervasive view of regions, one that is particularly popular with the Prairie region where there has been a long association and identification with the landscape. Even the term used for the region--Prairies--comes from the French word pre meaning meadow or grasslands, and therefore links the region to one of its geographical features, although geographers remind us that topographically it is not the most pervasive geographical feature of the region even if it has become its predominant imagined physical feature. Literary analysts have written numerous books about the magical influence of the land on the nature of the populace and on the creative imagination of the region. One thinks of W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind (1946), or Wallace Stegner's Wolf Willow (1962), or more recently Mark Abley's Forget: Rediscovering the Prairies (1986), Sharon Butala's The Perfection of the Morning: An Apprenticeship in Nature (1995), and Sid Marty's Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook (1996). Historians of the Prairie West often begin their studies of the history of the region with reference to the region's geography, on the assumption, implied if not stated, that geography has played an important role in the history of the prairie region. Note, for example, Gerald Friesen's Introduction to The Canadian Prairies: A History (1987), and John Herd Thompson's first chapter Ever. …

Privatization and productivity improvement: the case of Canadian National

Abstract This paper analyzes how privatization can influence the efficiency of a firm's operations. Canadian National (CN), a privatized firm, and its closest private sector competitor, Canadian Pacific (CP), are compared both before and after the privatization of CN. The total factor productivity of the two carriers is examined over a 17-year period (1981–1997). Accounting ratios and stock price returns are compared from 1995 to 1998. The results show that although CN was less efficient from 1981 to 1991, its performance increased to surpass that of CP during the post-privatization period.

The Roots of North America's First Comprehensive Public Health Insurance System

askatchewan, sandwiched between Alberta and Manitoba, is one of three prairie provinces in Canada. The province consists mainly of dry prairie in the south (where it borders the states of Montana and North Dakota) and subArctic forest, giving away to tundra along its border with the North West Territories. It was opened for European settlement after the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway at the end of the nineteenth-century and grew slowly, stabilizing at a population of between 900,000 and one million after the 1940s. Until the 1950s, this sparsely settled province was sustained by a one-crop wheat economy. Saskatchewan's population distribution reflected this, as most people lived in rural areas. There were only two medium-sized cities (Regina and Saskatoon) and six smaller ones ‘which anchored a network of villages and towns that covered an expanse of agricultural land larger than France’. Although less than eight per cent of Canadians lived in Saskatchewan in the 1940s, this province has played a large role in the development of national social policy. Western Canada, particularly Saskatchewan and Manitoba, was the crucible of the nation's Social Democratic movement which was based largely on the strong tradition of co-operative prairie wheat farming and marketing. Canada's first Social Democratic party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the forerunner of the New Democratic Party, was born during the Great Depression in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The party came to power in the Saskatchewan pro-

Impact of New Railway Technology on Grain Transportation in Western Canada

The impacts on railway technical productivity, infrastructure, and costs created by the introduction of new railway technology to the movement of grain in Western Canada are evaluated. By creating a geographic information system model of the railway system and assigning grain traffic to individual railway lines, operational and maintenance parameters are determined for each railway segment under a variety of scenarios. The scenarios consider the implementation of new high-horsepower locomotives and heavier freight cars. Because four new trains can do the work of five current trains, new technology decreases the number of trains and amount of equipment required, decreasing the cost of transport. Although the new cars negatively affect the infrastructure through higher axle loads, decreases in the number of trains operated more than offset associated roadway maintenance increases. The benefits of the new technology are more apparent on Canadian Pacific than on Canadian National because of the steep grades and long trains associated with Canadian Pacific operations. Over the service life of the new technology, approximately $260 million [in Canadian dollars (C$1 = US$0.65)] will be saved. Additional benefits can be obtained by performing additional upgrades to the railway infrastructure.

Gas hydrate distribution and volume in Canada

Gas hydrate, a solid form of natural gas and water, is inferred to widely occur in Canadian polar and continental shelf regions and in sediment of outer continental margins. Although direct indications of hydrate are few and widely separated, conditions potentially favorable for gas hydrate formation and stability, especially low to moderate temperatures under permafrost or the deep sea, combined with favorable geological conditions for gas generation and storage, cover vast areas and indicate an immense potential for natural hydrocarbon gas in the upper 2 km of many Canadian sedimentary basins. We have analyzed the potential of gas hydrates for the vast continental shelves and Arctic permafrost regions of Canada (Mackenzie delta-Beaufort Sea and Arctic Archipelago in the north and Davis Strait, the Labrador Shelf, Scotian Shelf, and Grand Banks of Newfoundland along the Canadian Atlantic margin and Canadian Pacific margin). Our conservative calculation suggests 1010-1012 m3 of gas hydrates in these regions has an associated methane gas potential estimated to be in the range of 1012-1014 m3. The volume of methane in hydrates in Canada are geographically distributed in the following regions: 0.24-8.7 x 1013 m3 in the Mackenzie delta-Beaufort Sea, 0.19-6.2 x 1014 m3 in the Arctic Archipelago, 1.9-7.8 x 1013 m3 on the Atlantic margin, and 0.32-2.4 x 1013 m3 on the Pacific margin. The total in-situ amount of methane in hydrates of Canada is estimated to be 0.44-8.1 x 1014 m3, as compared to a conventional Canadian in-situ hydrocarbon gas potential of approximately 0.27 x 1014 m3. This comparison suggests that gas hydrates represent a possible future assurance of North American energy supply if the gas can be recovered and separated from the hydrate form.

"Our Mickey": The Story of Private James O'Rourke, VC.MM (CEF), 1879-1957

Miner, soldier, LABOUR activist ? these are the words that sum up the life of Michael James O'Rourke. A simple man who never married, his life shaped by poverty and degradation, Mickey O'Rourke was involved in one of Canada's defining moments and some of its labour history: as winner ofthe Victoria Cross in World War I, as a returned soldier, and as a key participant in the 1935 Vancouver Waterfront strike. How did a miner and tunneller in his thirties, working for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) on the Rodgers Pass tunnel in BC, end up on the front line? And what happened once he returned from the war? This is the story of Michael O'Rourke, miner, soldier, labour activist. Mickey O'Rourke's origins are a mystery. Little is known of his family background despite extensive searches in Canada, Ireland, and Britain. According to his military records he was born 19 March 1879 in Limerick, Ireland to James and Catherine (Baker) O'Rourke, although his death certificate listed his date of birth earlier, 3 March 1874. Of his death there is more certainty, 6 December 1957. Orphaned at the tender age of eleven when his mother passed on, his father having died earlier, Mickey's only known family was two sisters, one in Vancouver, the other in Montreal. When, and how, Mickey came to Canada is unknown. His trail is not picked up again until he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF),

Turning Trees into Dollars: The British Columbia Coastal Lumber Industry 1858-1913

The coastal forests of British Columbia are currently a source of controversy, with clashes between corporations, workers, environmentalists, Aboriginals, and politicians frequently in the national media. Turning Trees into Dollars sheds light on the historical complexities that lie behind the ongoing crisis. This is a comprehensive account of the formative years of the British Columbian forestry industry. Pinning the historical facts on the central concept of market capitalism, Gordon Hak traces the political, geographical, and technological developments that occurred as small, financially tentative logging operations grew into a major economic force. His narrative traverses the treacherous labour conditions, union activities, the use of immigrant labour, and the role of the First Nations, as well as the mill industry, tariffs and trade, the effects of the Canadian Pacific Railway, industrialization, entrepreneurialism, and the conservation movements that compose the rich terrain of B.C. forestry.

Morphology and distribution of a deep-water Narcomedusa (Solmarisidae) from the northeast Pacific

Specimens of Solmaris sp. (Solmarisidae, Narcomedusae) with only four tentacles were collected in the northeast Pacific. The majority were collected in Canadian Pacific waters by Tucker trawl from stations outside the 500-m contour off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, at depths of 300-700 m. Six were collected in vertical hauls at Station P (50oN, 145oW). The oral stomach wall contains three prominent rings of tissue. There is a peripheral ring of aggregates of gonadal tissue. Nematogenic areas with three types of nematocysts form an intermediate ring closer to the mouth than the gonads, and they also overlie the gonadal position where nematogenic tissue extends out to the base of each tentacle. Immediately surrounding the mouth, the epithelium of the oral stomach wall is greatly thickened, and this central ring contains large numbers of secretory cells.

John F. Stevens—A Great Civil Engineer

In 1927 John F. Stevens was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and in so doing the Society honored a great engineer, a great builder, and a man who truly loved the practice of civil engineering. Stevens was a self-trained engineer and constructor who directed some of the great construction efforts of the 19th and 20th centuries. In his early years, Stevens was engaged in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, first with the contractors and then for the railway company directly. Two presidents thought so highly of his engineering skill that they appointed him to lead major construction efforts in the early 20th century. President Theodore Roosevelt made him chief engineer of the Isthmian (Panama) Canal work, and Wilson sent him to Russia in 1917, as chairman of a commission of railway engineers to rehabilitate and operate rail lines in Siberia. This narrative traces his adventures and growth as an engineer, but it also provides guidance as to how an engineer develops his capabilities in order to handle greater challenges.

Canada and Asia Pacific: New Dimensions

Canada and Asia Pacific: New Dimensions

Individual Vessel Quota Price-induced Effects for Canadian Pacific Halibut: Before and After Alaska IFQs

Two significant management changes have affected the British Columbia Pacific halibut fishery. The first was the implementation of the British Columbia individual vessel quota (IVQ) program in 1991, which tended to increase ex vessel prices. The second was Alaska's decision to follow its own individual fishery quota program in 1995, which tended to decrease British Columbia ex vessel prices. In a previous journal paper, the market driven ex vessel price increases for the British Columbia IVQ halibut fishery was estimated for 1991–1994. This paper examines the price- induced effects from 1995 to 1998 and quantifies how much of the previous price-induced IVQ increases remained after Alaska went to IFQs. Results indicate that approximately one-half of the price advantages of the British Columbia IVQ system was lost after Alaska went to the IFQs. However, a substantial revenue advantage remains, with the revenues estimated to have been $16.1 million higher during 1995–98 than would have occurred if both the British Columbia and Alaska had not put the individual quota programs into place. This brings the estimated total eight-year British Columbia Pacific halibut revenue increase due to IVQs at $39.5 million. Deux grands changements de gestion ont bouleverse le secteur de la peche du fletan du Pacifique en Colombie-Britannique. Le premier a ete la mise en place, en 1991, du contingent individuel de prises par vaisseau (IVQ) qui a eu pour effet general d'accroitre les prix du poisson au debarquement. Le deuxieme a ete l‘adoption par l'Alaska en 1995 de son propre programme de contingent individuel de peche, qui a eu en general un effet negatif sur les prix des poissons debarques en Colombie- Britannique. L'avantage du programme IVQ etait qu'il permettait de mettre en marche un produit de meilleure qualite durant la presque totalite de l'annee. Dans un article precedent, nous examinions les effets des prix resultant du programme IVQ pour les annees 1991 a 1994. Nous examinons id les effets pour les annees 1995 a 1998 et nous quantifions la pan des accroissements d'IVQ generes par les prix qui subsistait apres que l'Alaska ait adopte son propre regime. Il semble qu'approximativement la moitie de l‘avantage de prix obtenu par le regime IVQ de la Colombie-Britannique ait ete perdue avec l'entree en application du regime de l'Alaska. Il reste encore, cependant, des avantages subtantiels, comme en fait foi le niveau plus eleve des revenus de la peche du fletan, qui ont ete de 16,1 millions de dollars canadiens plus eleves dans la periode 1995–1998 que si aucun des deux regimes de contingentement n'avait pas ete mis en place. L'accroissement global pour la Colombie-Britannique des recettes tirees de la peche du fletan du Pacifique depuis l'adoption du IVQ en 1991 s'etablit donc a 39,5 millions de dollars canadiens.

Net loss: A cost‐benefit analysis of the Canadian Pacific salmon fishery

This article applies cost-benefit analysis to the Canadian Pacific commercial salmon fishery. It demonstrates that government policies to preserve the fishery have resulted in higher net social costs than would have resulted from a "do nothing" policy, notwithstanding the rent dissipation associated with unconstrained resource exploitation. The value of landings and the private costs of the harvest over a cycle (1988-1994) are calculated. On average, fishers extracted rents of C$34.7 million (in constant 1995 Canadian dollars) annually. The public costs of enhancing the resource and organizing and policing the harvest are estimated. When these costs are included in the calculation, net benefits drop to an average of negative C$55.6 million annually. This translates into a net present value (NPV) of the salmon fishery of negative C$784. The effects on NPV of both modest policy changes implemented in 1996-1997 and of a more dramatic but credible fleet rationalization program are provided. The results indicate that further policy change is called for. More generally, the study shows that policy reform that would significantly benefit both the private sector (through reduced rent dissipation) and the public sector (through reduced government expenditures) can be surprisingly difficult. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Net loss: A cost-benefit analysis of the Canadian Pacific salmon fishery

This article applies cost-benefit analysis to the Canadian Pacific commercial salmon fishery. It demonstrates that government policies to preserve the fishery have resulted in higher net social costs than would have resulted from a "do nothing" policy, notwithstanding the rent dissipation associated with unconstrained resource exploitation. The value of landings and the private costs of the harvest over a cycle (1988-1994) are calculated. On average, fishers extracted rents of C$34.7 million (in constant 1995 Canadian dollars) annually. The public costs of enhancing the resource and organizing and policing the harvest are estimated. When these costs are included in the calculation, net benefits drop to an average of negative C$55.6 million annually. This translates into a net present value (NPV) of the salmon fishery of negative C$784. The effects on NPV of both modest policy changes implemented in 1996-1997 and of a more dramatic but credible fleet rationalization program are provided. The results indicate that further policy change is called for. More generally, the study shows that policy reform that would significantly benefit both the private sector (through reduced rent dissipation) and the public sector (through reduced government expenditures) can be surprisingly difficult. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

The Development of Property Rights on the Canadian and American Mining Frontiers

Introduction It has sometimes been asserted that the history of mining in North America represents a kind of pure democracy, in which mining law was created by the miners without intervention from lawyers or politicians, and particularly without the input, interference, or advice of corrupt Eastern lawmakers. The classic expression of this idea is the Turner thesis, made popular by the turn of the century historian Frederick Jackson Turner. In an address to the American Historical Association given in 1893, Turner posited that the American frontier, not Washington or England, was the source of American democracy.(1) The Turner thesis, that war-horse of American historiography, has been battered over the decades by scholars who have shown that the west was far less egalitarian and democratic than populist myth would have it. As Howard Lamar has pointed out, the rigidity of Turner's idea--that a chapter in American history had closed--made his thesis useless as a guide for the present and future.(2) American historians such as Patricia Nelson Limerick(3) have shown that the west was subject to much the same historical, economic, and political forces as the rest of the country. Yet because it contains so much that Americans would like to see in themselves, the thesis retains a seductiveness that makes it hard to ignore--if it is not true, it seems that it ought to be true. In Canada, on the other hand, a country that has had more frontier than the U.S.A., the idea that these regions have dominated Canadian political institutions (though they have at times influenced them) seems absurd. In this country the frontier populist myth is so faint that this particular historical horse has never left the starting gate. Yet if Turner was wrong, then Canada and the United States are not as different as some Canadian nationalists would prefer to believe. Despite the assaults on Turner, there are some episodes in American history that do seem to confirm his idea that the frontier was the wellspring of democracy. One of them is the early history of western mining, particularly mining law and regulations. A number of scholars working in the field of property rights have demonstrated that mining law in the western United States sprang from the experiences and the demands of the miners rather than being imposed by legislatures; its contractual nature was first established by the miners and only later codified into law. Despite what rugged individualists in northern Canada may claim, the region in this century has been heavily influenced and almost totally controlled by the central government. This is as true of mining as of any other facet of the northern experience. Except for a very brief and uncharacteristic episode, the history of mining north of sixty degrees has followed a very different pattern from the Turnerian ideal. Far from being the well-spring of democracy in this country, the northern mining districts have served as examples of a much different tradition. The Klondike gold rush in particular can best be understood not as a flowering of regional democracy, but in terms of one of the oldest and most traditional historiographical interpretations in English Canadian history--Donald Creighton's theory of metropolitanism. In 1937 Creighton published The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence, an attempt to understand Canadian history through a study of the influence of the St. Lawrence valley over the rest of the country.(4) Even after sixty years his view of Canada's history remains powerful, proof that some historical ideas do not lose validity with age; from the fur trade to the Canadian Pacific Railway to the National Energy Policy, it is difficult to argue with his contention that the Toronto-Montreal core has shaped Canada in the light of its own commercial interests. Though Creighton did not decry this control, others did, particularly regional historians, and what Creighton called metropolitanism, others have called internal colonialism. …

Alliance or acquisition? Strategies for growth in the container shipping industry, the case of CP ships

The global shipping industry is undergoing a transformation through the establishment of strategic alliances involving nearly all the major carriers. The near universality of the phenomenon would lead one to believe that being part of a global alliance is the only means of survival today. The case of CP Ships, the maritime arm of Canadian Pacific, provides a radically different model. CP Ships began as a small market player, but through direct acquisition has grown in size to be comparable with many of the large global carriers. It has remained focused as a niche player, venturing to confront the mainline carriers only peripherally. This paper explores the bases for CP Ship's success, highlighting the fact that alliances need not be the only path to survival in a global industry.

Three stories, two visions: the West and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Canadian culture

Many now think the Canadian nation-state is entering a phase in its development that can be described as “postmodern” ( Porter, 1995, pp. 91–106). Throughout the 1990s we have heard much talk of “asymmetrical federalism,” “bilateral federalism,” “successor states” and Quebec/ROC (Rest of Canada) polarities ( Watts, 1991, pp. 1–7). In this time of constitutional and political ferment, commentators postulated the existence of as many as “seven incipient nations” within the borders of the present Canadian polity ( Mahler and March, 1991, p. 16). There are resonances here within the field of literary criticism. Linda Hutcheon and Marion Richmond’s Other Solitudes: Canadian Multicultural Fictions (1990) highlight factors of paradox, contradiction, and extreme irony in the Canadian situation, factors they see as central to the postmodern world view. This paper examines two works of Canadian popular culture analyzed against E. J. Pratt’s Towards the Last Spike (1952) in an effort to suggest that a postmodern style may have something to offer our sociopolitical debate. The television dramatization of Pierre Berton’s two-volume work on the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, The National Dream (1974), and the Canada Day Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) special “Murray McLauchlan’s Floating Over Canada” represent, with Pratt, two differing visions of Canada. The McLauchlan effort, I hope to show, when set against Berton and Pratt, represents an implied postmodern critique of modernism’s romantic faith in technological efficiency and cultural tradition. McLaughlan’s antiintentionalism and playfulness, I argue, offer a useful way to represent some of our present dilemmas and may even provide reasons for optimism about problems that have plagued Canadians for years.

The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America

Reviewed by: The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Idea in British North America* Ken Cruikshank (bio) The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Idea in British North America. By A. A. den Otter. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. Pp. 292; illustrations, maps, notes, index. $34.95. Canadian national historians, philosophers, poets, and folksingers have celebrated the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway as one of the great moments in Canadian history. The completion of the railway, they contend, drove the last spike into the hearts of covetous and expansionist Americans who sought to claim North America as their own, and ensured the creation of a kinder, gentler nation north of the forty-ninth parallel. In The Philosophy of Railways, historian A. A. den Otter punctures this national myth. From the 1840s onward, den Otter notes, Canadian political leaders were obsessed with railway technology, and gradually did become engaged by the idea of a transcontinental railway. More often than not, however, they were far more interested in attaching their communities to the dynamic economy and society to the south. More often than not, they welcomed American investment, American technology, American expertise, [End Page 427] and American railway connections. Den Otter concludes that Canadian railway projects, including the Canadian Pacific railway, need to be understood as the product of “a complex and ambiguous process that included metropolitan economic objectives, a civilizing mission, and political-economic theories of growth and development” (p. 11). Rather than portraying Canadian railway policy as the work of Canadian nation-builders, den Otter situates the policy within the context of “an international urban consensus on the place of technology in society” (p. 31). As a result, The Philosophy of Railways is a thoughtful study of the political and ideological context in which railway technology was introduced in the British North American colonies and the new Dominion of Canada. The book offers a welcome synthesis of new research by den Otter and other scholars, and also incorporates some very fine older works that often have been overlooked because they did not fit the “nationalist” interpretation of Canadian railway history. New light is shed on an old subject, particularly because den Otter is conversant with important international works such as Daniel Headrick’s influential Tentacles of Progress (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). A range of research is thus made much more readily accessible and relevant to historians not directly involved in the field of Canadian railway history. The book begins with a consideration of the eighteenth-century liberal ideas that underpinned the philosophy of railways, and concludes with a wide-ranging discussion of the impact of Canadian railways by the time of World War I. The main focus of the work, however, is on the period between 1849, the eve of Canada’s first railway boom, and 1885, the completion of the Canadian Pacific railway. Den Otter avoids a central Canadian focus and is attentive to the development of railway policy in the Atlantic colonies. His most original contribution continues to be his work on the promotion of the Canadian Pacific. In this case, he is particularly careful to untangle the interaction of the public philosophy of railways and the private business strategies of railway promoters. This is perhaps the clearest and finest example in the book to show how attention to the public and private perspectives on the meaning and use of technology can alter traditional interpretations. Precisely because den Otter is at his best in bringing new perspectives to the study of railways, I was disappointed that some older ideas continue to shape his work. For example, den Otter insists on the connection between the National Policy tariffs and the need to create traffic for the future Canadian Pacific Railway. If this were the case, why is it that neither John A. Macdonald nor any of his other colleagues ever “explicitly tied the new tariff policy to the Pacific railway” (p. 204)? Perhaps because they knew that so long as Canada and the United States agreed to allow bonding-in-transit, customs tariffs would have little impact on the routing of traffic between eastern and western Canada. Den Otter downplays a more interesting connection between the philosophy...

ALBERTA IRRIGATION IN THE OLD AND NEW MILLENNIUM

This article gives an historical perspective on the development of irrigation. It places this history into four periods, each of which represents a particular combination of stakeholders: government, private corporations and water users, all interested in the maintenance or expansion of the system. The first period, from the mid-1890s to 1914, involved the federal government and private corporations. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Alberta Irrigation Company (later renamed the Canadian North West Irrigation Company) and the Southern Alberta Land Company were the corporate partners of the federal government on the Bow and St. Mary Rivers. The decision of the CPR to reduce its role in irrigation development in 1914 resulted in the passage of the Irrigation District Act in 1915 and the inauguration of the second era of development. From 1915 to 1935 the farmers located adjacent to existing districts or in areas proposed for development by the federal government took the initiative to create irrigation districts and expand the irrigated acreage. The role of government during this period was to provide technical assistance. The provincial government provided guarantees for district bonds to encourage continued private investment in the industry. The third period began in 1935 with the creation of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration that resulted, for the first time, in direct government expenditures on irrigation infrastructure. The fourth period began in the 1960s when the water users and the provincial government became the principal stakeholders through the passage of the new irrigation act, and new programs such as the Irrigation Capital Works Program came into effect. The Act created the Bow River and the St. Mary River Irrigation Districts. The 1960s marked the total reorganization of the irrigation industry in Alberta. The changes ranged from new administrative procedures to the application of new technology for the delivery of water to the farm gate and its distribution on the land. The industry thus became progressively more efficient in its use of water and land. The trend towards greater efficiency will continue into the new millennium with the Year 2000 Steering Committee, a joint industry/government initiative to determine future water allocations on the South Saskatchewan River.