Best known for its monumental achievements in transportation
technology, Canadian Pacific Railway (or "CP") was instrumental in
constructing the concept--and the reality--of the country we now call
Canada. In addition to building the railroad that connected the country
from coast to coast, CP was also highly effective at selling the idea of
a vast and rich land of opportunity and triggering a massive wave of
immigration to what was dubbed the "Golden Northwest" (later the
provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). No other independent
corporation in the world made such a profound contribution to the
creation of a national enterprise, nor outspent a national government in
populating its frontiers with settlers from specifically targeted
areas, often at the expense of Indigenous populations and their
traditional territories.
Tracing the history of this highly influential corporation from the
initial CP contract and land grant, historian David Laurence Jones
explores CP's involvement in carving out routes to the region, building
towns, promoting Western Canada's arable land and economic potential to
Europeans and Americans, operating steamships, spearheading some of the
largest irrigation projects in the world, and devising unique settlement
schemes such as ready-made farms. Illustrated with more than four
hundred archival photos and colour advertisements, New World Dreams is the most extensive history of Canadian Pacific ever published.
