When was the Canadian Pacific Railway completed with the driving of the “last spike”?
- 1867
- 1871
- 1885
- 1914
Answer: 1885
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed on November 7, 1885, when Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), its Scottish-born director, drove the last spike. The guide calls the railway a powerful symbol of unity. British Columbia had joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised a railway to the West Coast.
Learn more: A railway from sea to sea and moving westward
- British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast.
- On November 7, 1885, Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the CPR, drove the last spike.
- The CPR was paid for by British and American investors and built by European and Chinese workers.
- After the railway, Chinese people faced discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized for it in 2006.
- During the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s, one million British and one million American immigrants came to Canada, and the economy became more industrialized.
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation. He encouraged immigration to the West, and his portrait is on the $5 bill.
- The railway made it possible for 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway and Sweden to settle in the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.
- Thousands of miners came to the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s, as celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service.