—3— Crossing Canada by rail: an adventure and a history By Bob Tufts / Past President This past spring I flew to Montreal for an Elderhostel tour across our northern neighbor, Canada. First came an introduction to the history and origins of Montreal, Old Town, and Quebec. My memory rewound to a honeymoon trip to Montreal in 1968, when we stayed in a downtown hotel. We learned that Quebec’s Saint-Jean Baptiste Day parade would end right in front of the hotel. What a bonus! Alas, the parade we witnessed was disjointed, disarrayed, and confused. The next morning’s headlines explained why: The Quebecois separatist movement demonstrated in front of the grandstand—and the new Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau—by rioting, throwing acid, and torching police cars. Almost 300 protesters were arrested. Today, English is missing from Quebec highway signs, and a significant number of Englishspeaking folks and businesses have departed Quebec. “Canada” originally meant the French settlers. History continues. This trip was an indulgence, as we are allowed in our retirement years, picking experiences that supplement our lives and wishes, and that fit our budgets and health. Trains are “romantic,” either as calendar photos or as transportation in our youth—I remember traveling on the New York Central. However, Canada built a rail line to forge its provincial unity and independence from the United States. Canada has a unique history, and a unique national character. From Montreal, on an island in the St. Lawrence River system, to Toronto, on the shore of Lake Ontario, we took one of six daily trains for the 539kilometer (335-mile) journey. Arriving at Union Station, we walked a block to our hotel. The nearby CN Tower was once considered the world’s tallest building. In reality it is the world’s tallest “pole”— with a restaurant and an observatory clinging to it. Our tour encompassed two nights each in Montreal, Toronto, aboard rail, Edmonton, Jasper, on rail (one night), and Vancouver. In each city there were lectures and presentations on regional history, culture, and life. Canada evolved from European history as well as its “adjacency” to the United States. Much of Canada’s history is defined by keeping the railroad beyond U.S. influence, the “elephant to the south.” Quebec was French; Ontario evolved much from Loyalists leaving the new U.S.; the Metis mixed-race people and railroad inducements to non-U.S. immigrant nations settled the Prairie Provinces; and British Columbia was secured from U.S. interests by the railroad promise. (Acadia and the Maritime Provinces escaped our program history.) In Toronto, we embarked on the Canadian, the exalted 3,100-mile Toronto-to-Vancouver train. In the 1950s, Canada ordered 400 aluminum silver cars as its new rolling stock. Ten years ago Canada refurbished them to reinvigorate this national rail icon and provide for what is now basically a tourist trade. North of Toronto, we rolled for a full day through the sparsely inhabited geologic formation of the Canadian (aka Laurentian) Shield, exposed bedrock (mostly pick granite) and its bogs, marshes, and stone that had defied the railroad engineers. In Manitoba it gave Bob Tufts photo continued on page 6 RAPSter Bob Tufts covered Canada by train last spring, traveling from Montreal to Vancouver.
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