Sunday, May 17, 2020

Nationalize the CPR and re-nationalize the CNR.

Long before the Crown corporation was privatized it was abandoning routes and demolishing stations. The mandate of the Canadian National Railway was to unite this country and to provide a link to remote locations. And both of the companies were obligated by law to transport passengers and freight.
House of Commons Debates  Ottawa  June 7, 1973.
Mr. Reginald Belair (Cochrane-Superior).
     "Madame Speaker, last week mayors, citizens and myself strongly argued against the CNR's intention to cancel the  Northlander train from North Bay to Toronto. We have emphatically pointed out that the CNR should not victimize the citizens of northern Ontario by cutting off a transportation service that was affordable to seniors, students, the handicapped and those who have to travel to Toronto for specialized medical attention. The northern travel grant covers only one-half of their travel costs, which are prohibitive to most.
While bus transportation is available it is most uncomfortable during the 15 hours it takes to get to Toronto. The CNR's mandate is to ensure isolated regions of this country are linked to urban centres where specialized services are offered. The need to subsidize the Northlander run will always exist and senior governments have the moral obligation to continue this vital rail transport service for us."
House of Commons Debates  Ottawa  April 1, 1974.
Mr. Frank Oberle (Prince George-Peace River, Alberta.)
     "Government takeover of CPR is a possibility, Transport Minister Jean Marchand said in the Commons March 21...He spoke after NDP leader David Lewis urged nationalism of the "entire shebang" of the CPR. Mr. Marchand said "I did not say no immediately."...Let me go into this matter a little bit. It was proposed that the federal government buy all the rail beds that exist in Canada, whether they belong to the CNR, the CPR, the BCR or the Northern Alberta Railway."
House of Commons Debates Ottawa  March 21, 1974.
Mr. David Lewis, New Democratic Party.
     "When one considers the present national transportation policy based on the false concept of profit-making, we realize, to use the words of Pierre Berton, that the national dream has, in this country, become a national nightmare....We propose that Canadian Pacific Limited be brought under public ownership. When I say this, I am talking not only about the rail operation, I am talking about the whole shebang..."
Some hon. Members:
     "Hear, hear!"
Mr. Lewis:
     -the entire economic empire which they built as a result of Canadian grants. Everybody knows the history, and if they don't they should. Everybody knows about the millions of dollars, the hundreds of millions in grants and subsidies which the Canadian people have given CP, the millions of acres of land. As a result of these gifts from the Canadian people, CPR not only owns:
---an airline, a shipping line; a trucking line;
---a telecommunications network;
---a large company in Trail and other parts of British Columbia;
---Cominco; the Pine Point Mine in the Northwest Territories;
---other properties all over the country through another subsidiary;
---an oil company.
I urge that we bring the CPR under public ownership. If CPR remains a private corporation concerned with making more and more profit, then it will continue in the future, as it has in the past, to sabotage - and I do not use that word lightly, but quite deliberately-every attempt to achieve a national transportation policy that seeks to serve the interest of Canada and not the profits of the CPR."
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Canadian Pacific Limited Hotels in 1974.
Royal York- Toronto, Ontario.
Chateau Frontenac - Quebec City, Quebec.
Chateau Montebello - Quebec.
Palliser - Calgary, Alberta.
Chateau Lake Louise - Alberta.
Banff Springs - Alberta.
Empress - Victoria, British Columbia.
Hotel Vancouver - British Columbia.
Chateau Champlain - Montreal, Quebec.


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