The Railway and the Buffalo
About the concerns about the high-speed rail track that is raising the hackles of landowners along the designated Ontario corridor, it is no different than the concerns that were raised 150 years ago for the transcontinental railroad. In 1871 British Columbia entered Confederation with the understanding the rest of the country would build a railroad to unite them with the eastern provinces.
Sir John A Macdonald at that time in the early stages of the Dominion had neither the abundance of money nor the ownership of the land to make a deal. The railroad would cut across the migration route of the great northern herd of buffalo which in 1871 there were still seven million of the beasts left on the continent. The other problem Macdonald had was that the land he needed for this railroad was still owned by the Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cree, and Saulteaux plains tribes who depended on the buffalo for sustenance.
Once the buffalo started to disappear Macdonald was able to starve the Indigenous people into submitting to signing treaties. It was against Canadian law for Indigenous people to hire lawyers to help them negotiate treaties, so these people had to believe what the government told them. We all know how that worked out.
Once the Canadian government were able to expropriate the plains tribes’ lands, they gave the CPR $25 million dollars and 25 million acres of land to build the railroad. The CPR then sold the land for $2.50 an acre to immigrants that had been lured to Canada by hired land agents to advertise in Europe for them to come to Canada and get cheap land. This enabled the CPR to grow their customer base along the railroad as the farms and towns were established.
Now 150 years later Canada is nation building again. For the people that fear losing their land to expropriation please take some solace in the knowing that at least you can hire lawyers to defend your rights in court, something the Indigenous peoples could not do.
I wish everyone good luck, but as we all know the government always listens and then always does what they originally set out to do.
Of special note: In July 1886 Sir John A and his wife Agnes rode on a special train across Canada. Agnes Macdonald was fascinated by the cowcatcher at the front of the train. Against the wishes of everyone aboard she road the cowcatcher to get a better view of the landscape. So, maybe when the high-speed rail is built, the Prime Minster of the day could have his wife could emulate Agnes and ride the outside front of the train along the corridor.
