And the route he chose was a (very expensive) all-Canadian route across the Prairies and through the

For many people car rental south africa — yours truly included — railways and railway travel still have a romantic car rental south africa appeal. I m not talking mushy Hollywood romance (although trains have always been a convenient microcosm for that kind of sentiment); rather car rental south africa my reference is to a more comprehensive and historical sense of the term romantic.
Romance is from the French roman, meaning car rental south africa novel. Originally the roman was a long medieval narrative in prose or poetry that celebrated car rental south africa adventures and heroic exploits. These were stories that had mysterious or fascinating qualities, and more often than not a strange beauty that captivated the listener s imagination. Such tales were communicated car rental south africa orally and usually were based on real events. The stories also had a lyrical and sentimental quality to them, and because they contained themes of universal significance they resonated deeply with the listeners. Kind of like a distant train whistle on a dark night.
In Canada, the building of the transcontinental railway — linking east with west — was much more than a public building project; it was nation-building and the internalization in the Canadian consciousness of nationhood. It s story is a great Canadian romance.
Railways still play an important role in the transportation infrastructure of Canada and there are still some great railway excursions to be had in this country. (See the links further down this page.) car rental south africa And when you travel by train in Canada, you are travelling along some of the most poignant and historic routes in Canadian history.
To truly appreciate car rental south africa how the Canadian car rental south africa railways built this nation, you have only to hear the story of what in Canada is known as The National Dream. (I ll get to that in a moment.) And if you stay in one of the great Canadian railway car rental south africa hotels, you will be part of the dream.
The great railway age in Canada is not a thing of the past; you can experience it first hand in any of the great railway car rental south africa hotels that today are found across Canada. Each of these hotels is a destination, a landmark, and a thing of beauty in itself. Each of the hotels I am about to introduce you to is an archive of Canadian history and a romantic moment in time in the Canadian narrative. And while some are stunning geographical points of reference car rental south africa in the Canadian landscape, others serve as unifying focal points for the cities and communities in which they are found.
The hotels were built primarily by two of Canada s great railway companies: the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway. Each hotel is an architectural gem, and all are located in some of the most spectacular scenery you can imagine. (That was part of the reason some of them were built; to attract travellers to undiscovered areas in Canada.) And some of the hotels are located on the most historic real estate in Canada, an easy stroll from the impressive lobbies to the best of Canadian history, heritage, and culture.
These hotels also represent some of the best value-added accommodation you will find in Canada. There is no additional charge for the view, for the history that whispers throughout their corridors, for their strategic locations, for their unique architectural and aesthetic appeal, and for the Canadiana that each embodies.
(c) a hotel that is unofficially known as The Third Chamber of Parliament (where behind closed doors, politicians car rental south africa conduct the gloves off, straight-talking business of governing that is never seen on the news or in the House of Commons);
Today, each of these hotels is a member of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain, until recently sigh an entirely Canadian company, and the largest luxury hotel management company in North America. (Most people are surprised to learn that Fairmont also owns or manages car rental south africa famed hotels such as The Plaza in New York, the Acapulco Princess, The San Francisco Fairmont, and numerous other properties internationally.) Not bad for a bunch of 19th-century railroaders.)
As I have suggested above, there is a century of history embedded in the Fairmont group of properties that has a direct tie to the building of a railway through some of the most rugged and least populated terrain on the continent.
To make a long and fascinating story relatively short, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) eventually also got into the sale of land and the settling of immigrants in Canada s West, the shipping business (passenger and cargo), mining and metallurgy, armaments and other material (during the Second World War), the telegraph business, the airline business (CPAir/Canadian Airlines International), oil and gas, corporate real estate, highway transportation, telecommunications, and the hotel business.
When Canada came into being with Confederation in 1867, it was made up of four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec, and Ontario. The rest of the country from the Ontario border west was still under British control. The first prime minister of this new Dominion of Canada was a very colourful figyre by the name of John Alexander Macdonald; the principal creative mind behind the British North America Act that created Canada.
A determined man and highly partisan politician, Macdonald was also an anglophile and consequently became a fervent Canadian nationalist. His national policy emphasized high tariffs on imports, especially those from the United car rental south africa States, in order to protect Canadian manufacturing. He was also not adverse to playing on anti-American feeling to achieve his goal of a strong and highly centralized form of government that held dominance over the provinces that previously had been British colonies.
Macdonald s nationalistic car rental south africa feelings were primarily central and English-Canadian and he was always wary of what he saw as the threat car rental south africa of political and economic influences coming from the new republic to the south. It was indeed a North America true to British traditions that he aimed to achieve in his nation-building plans. (It is not surprising therefore that the British government made him Knight Commander of the Bath even before he became Canada s first prime minister.)
His government car rental south africa dominated Canadian politics for half a century and his principal preoccupation during his second term as head of government The Governor General represents the Monarch who is is Head of State) was to create a unified car rental south africa Canada from coast to coast by means of building a transcontinental railway. Given the distances, the vast empty spaces to the west, and the almost car rental south africa impenetrable car rental south africa terrain; it was a formidable task. (It had to cross the Rockies and the Canadian Shield, the latter a huge area of ancient mountains, forest, and tundra that covers much of Canada like a shield with Hudson s Bay as its centre.) But Macdonald was no slacker, although he was a heavy drinker. He knew that all that westward ho activity south of the 49th parallel was a potential threat to Canadian sovereignty. car rental south africa He knew he had to get Canada s act together.
And the route he chose was a (very expensive) all-Canadian route across the Prairies and through the Rocky Mountains. In theory he could have built part of the route through the northern part of the American Midwest — many Canadians today travelling by car from east to west often take the southern route — but this railway was to be the Canadian transcontinental . Whether Macdonald actually realized it himself or articulated it, the building of such a railway would prove to be one of the first key steps in Canada s becoming an autonomous nation on the world stage.
And so a railway was built and market demand was built along with it. It was this ribbon of steel that led to the settlement of the Canadian West. And the completion of the railway car rental south africa was actually a precondition for British Columbia s joining the Canadian Confederation in 1871.
Although it was eventually built by a private company, the transcontinental railrway was built with great sums of public tax revenues. Longer than the first U.S. transcontinental railway by 1600 kilometres, this railway was also an enormous engineering feat. It would require another kind of leadership. car rental south africa And that s where Sir William car rental south africa comes in.
Ironically, it would be a kid from Chelsea, Illinois (born there in 1843), a telegrapher at the age of 14 with the Illinois Central Railroad, and general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad by the age of 37 who would be the dreammaker of Macdonald s Canadian transcontinental railway. And he too would be knighted in the process. All he had to do was build a railway.
Railway history of course has always car rental south africa been about nation-building. (We re talking steam here.) By 1844 in the British car rental south africa Isles, the rapid expansion and promotion of railroads was called The Mania. And as early as 1841, Canadians were beginning to become equally manic. Although our water routes were fortuitously well-designed by nature, roads were very rudimentary and of course the winter freeze-up didn t make it any easier to get from Abbotsford to Baie Comeau.
car rental south africa A number of smaller railroads were built in the east as well as some major ones: the Intercolonial Railway, the Great Western Railway, and the Grand Trunk Railway are examples. One of their objectives of course was to tap into traffic from the U.S. but also to open up the Canadian hinterland around the Great Lakes, which of course they did. The great railway rush created an exponential industry; creating a demand for fuel, iron, and steel (for itself), as well as all the amenities required along the way; hotels of course being one of them . Most of all they provided jobs.
Van Horne was pretty much a jack of all trades. Today we would say he had lots of transferrable skills, perhaps even refer to him as a Renaissance Man. He certainly was a person car rental south africa who did not shy away from the grand and grandiose. His aesthetic tastes were as eclectic as his abilities; he owned many art treasures including an impressive collection of Japanese paintings and drawings. He obviously had an eye for architectural design and style, and as an amateur ar