Facts about Marathon Realty, the real estate arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Over 100 years ago, Sir John A. Macdonald created the Trans Canada Railroad, or the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sir John A. wanted the CPR to connect all the provinces and territories of the Dominion of Canada; and he wanted to prevent the annexation of Dominion land by the United States.
The CPR received $25 million dollars and 25 million acres of Crown land from the federal government, to build the transcontinental railway.

The SUBSIDIARY LANDS were given to the CPR to deal with as they saw fit.
The REVERSIONARY LANDS were granted solely for railway purposes, reverting to the Crown should they cease to be used for those purposes.
Instead of returning reversionary land back to the Crown, the CPR created MARATHON REALTY.  Marathon Realty acquired millions of acres of land, train stations, rights-of-way, railway lines, warehouses, roundhouses...A 125-acre CPR manufacturing and repair shop in Montreal, the Angus Shops, is now a very high-density condo, apartment and townhouse development.
Former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell is sometimes called "The Marathon Man" because he was a Marathon real estate executive. The other Marathon Man was actor Dustin Hoffman:

Marathon Man, a 1976 movie.

The CP Tower in Calgary, Alberta is now called the Husky Tower. The Husky Tower was built on the grounds of a demolished CPR train station, and a tunnel linked the train station to the Palliser Hotel:
A multinational corporation called Fairmont Hotels and Resorts is the owner of most of Canada's CPR hotels and castles:
The Algonquin, St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
The Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City, Quebec.
The Chateau Montebello, Montebello, Quebec.
The Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario.
The Palliser Hotel, Calgary, Alberta.
The Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta.
The Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta.
The Empress Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia.
The Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Samuel de Champlain built a fort on the site where the Chateau Frontenac Hotel is now located. The fort was built on high ground, to protect the property from invaders. But high ground could not protect the Chateau Frontenac from a foreign invasion, created by the privatization of railway property.

The Chateau Frontenac Hotel in Quebec City, Quebec.

In her books "The Rage and the Pride" and "The Force of Reason", writer Oriana Fallaci criticised the foreign takeover of landmarks and treasures in her beloved Italy. And George Jonas wrote an article called "Will we become Canarabia?" in the National Post on March 31, 2006.

Canadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot wrote and sang "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" about the building of the CPR, and many YouTube videos feature the song.
Many books have been written about the Canadian Pacific Railway:
The National Dream (1970) and The Last Spike (1971) by Pierre Berton.
Steel of Empire: The Romantic History of the Canadian Pacific, the Northwest Passage of Today (1935) by J.M. Gibbon.
A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1923) by H.A. Innis.
History of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1977) by W. Kaye Lamb.
Canadian Pacific: A Brief History (1968) by J.L. McDougall.
(From: The Canadian Encyclopedia by Hurtig Publishing, 1985).

The Marathon Realty property portfolio included:
Metro Centre in Toronto.
Citibank Place in Toronto.
Atria Phase 1,11,111 in Toronto.
100 boulevard Rene Levesque in Montreal.
Place Laurier in Quebec City.
Place d'Orleans
Dufferin Mall in Toronto.
Orchard Park in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Northland Village in Calgary.
Southtown lands in Toronto.
Coal Harbour in Vancouver.
Wentworth in Montreal.
The Yonge/Summerhill lands in Toronto.
Windsor Station, CPR real estate in Montreal, was sold via a Privy Council Order-in-Council:

January 28, 1993 - Heritage Railway Stations Act - Canadian Pacific Limited to sell Windsor Station and land in Montreal." The former CPR Station is a National Historic Site of Canada.

Windsor Station entrance.

    

Canadian Pacific Railway land is rich in natural resources. This is what MP John Soloman said about Canadian Pacific Limited and Marathon Realty in the House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa Ontario:

 "The Liberal government and its predecessors, the Tories, allowed, persuaded and encouraged the CPR to take its Comincos, its mining companies, its Pan Canadian Oil Company, the second largest oil company in Canada and hive them off into subsidiaries, and not use those revenues or profits to sustain the railways and the transportation to western farmers, to our western population. Literally billions and billions of dollars have been hived off." (Yahoo: type in "Hansard Marathon Realty" - Edited Hansard - 1650, no. 058).

Canadian Pacific Limited owned Canadian Pacific Holdings Ltd.; Pan Canadian Petroleum and Fording Coal.
 In 1996, Marathon Realty was sold to the multinational General Electric Capital Group and to Oxford Properties, for $952 million dollars Canadian. Remember, Sir John A. Macdonald decreed that all CPR reversionary land would return to the Crown, to the people of this nation. Never happened.