Most countries have a founding myth of some kind, a moment in time that serves as an anchor for the grand national story.

For the United States, it’s the American Revolution and the founding of the republic. France’s history goes back centuries, but their national narrative begins with the storming of the Bastille. Which is why Bastille Day is their most important holiday.

England has the Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings. And Mexicans usually trace their history back to the fall of Tenochtitlan.

But Canada, as usual, is strange.

Some will inevitably point to the Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences as the moment when our national story begins. And sure, that may be where the idea of Confederation was born. But the country that emerged was simply a union of what are today only four of our provinces.

The real Canada, the one made up of a massive landmass that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the entire length of the North American continent, the country we have today, wasn’t born on July 1st, 1867. That nation came into existence on November 7, 1885, when the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven into the ground at Craigellachie, British Columbia.

It seems fitting to me that Canada wasn’t created out of some spirit of revolutionary zeal or war of conquest or high-minded ideal.

Instead, our grand national story is about an industrial project.

And I find that apt. Because the story of the CPR truly does speak to what it means to be a Canadian. You can see so many of the themes of our history, so much of what it means to be Canadian, in this monumental endeavour.

There’s the resistance to the American behemoth. The taming of a wild, unforgiving landscape. The ingenuity and persistence and grit of thousands of Canadians working together to build one of the greatest marvels of the industrial age.

But there’s also the unparalleled corporate and political corruption. Labour exploitation on a scale that’s hard to fathom. And the utter subjugation of the Indigenous peoples of this land.

And all of that put together is what makes the story of the construction of the CPR a fitting foundational myth for Canada.

So on this episode of The Hatchet, at a time when Canadian nationalism is peaking, we’re going to lay out the true story of the Canadian Pacific Railway in all of its glorious and gory detail. In order to bring us closer to an honest understanding of who we are as a nation, for good and for ill.

Featured in this episode: Stephen Bown

To Learn More:

Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen Bown

The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean Teillet

The National Dream

The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy Hoe

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

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