Connections/Passages selection by Canadian Specific ® 2007
Stand fast, Craigellachie – a cry that rallied a clan, a Company in a dark hour and a country still goes out around the world
William Cornelius Van Horne – youngest rail supt.,built the longest rail line in the world with vision, drive, many talents and few words
The Railway and the River: Crowfoot – Grand Chief of the Blackfoot Confederacy gave permission with regret; deserves our gratitude
Rogers Pass – an American who’d never seen a mountain before gained immortality finding a way through Canada’s Rockies and Selkirks
The Benevolent Banker: Revelstoke – “whose faith in our future was as great as his finances … so we’d never go begging again”
Eagle Pass: Walter Moberly – the eagles were his guide through the mountains
Riel and the Railway – “a line that joined the oceans choked the lifeline of the plains: Riel saved Railway that brought his people down…”
Lord Mount Stephen – organized the project, backed it with his life savings and then stepped aside to give someone else the top job
Keep the Passage Open – a call to remove build-up of snow in the mountain passes, and stuff between people in the world
The E & N: Island Survivor – Canada’s last island railway gets another lease on life
Lady Macdonald’s Ride – more of a risk taker than the PM in the Rocky Mountains
The Canmore Connection – a town near Banff delivered coal and now golf
Sanford Fleming: Time Lord – designed a postage stamp, surveyed three railway routes, proposed our present standard time system
The Spiral Tunnels – an engineering achievement with cosmic significance: “the double helix at our Great Divide”
Titanic struck the iceberg/Rupert’s hopes went down – had Grand Trunk lived up to its dreams, Vancouver would have a competitor
The Empress of Britain – CP’s answer to Titanic: as big, faster, more luxurious
The Selkirk Locomotive – our “engine that could” in the mountain passes
Salute to the Princess Patricia – Canadian liner that became the first “love boat”
Canada is Connections – these [other things] all point to a reason for being that’s larger than them all …”