Volume 15,  Number 16 Dec. 4, 1985 Saga of the CPR Created Canada's Image By Robert Stewart Train Crew:  The crew of the special steam train was made up of employees from CP Rail as well as from the National Museum of Science and Technology (NMST). Beginning from the man in the light overalls, left, are:  Bill Straga and Ernie Ottewell locomotive engineers; O. Sinclair (Sinc) Jones conductor; Dave Willford trainman; Jack Carten conductor and John Corby curator, industrial technology, NMST. On the locomotive's pilot, from left are:  NMST employees Georges Larose heavy equipment technician; Ian Jackson assistant to the curator; and Jack Hewitson retired mechanical officer, CP Rail. Montreal writer Robert Stewart grew up in Schreiber, Ontario, where his father and grandfather worked for the railway. Author of books and magazine articles on Canadian history, Mr. Stewart write the prestigious Royal Bank Letter.   He travelled to Craigellachie to witness the closing of an old century for CP Rail, and the opening of a new one. Following are his observations on the significance of the last spike. As the 1201 shattered the mountain air with a blast of its whistle to mark the end of the spike-driving ceremony 7 Nov 1985, I happened to glance at an old fellow standing near me. He was choking back a sob.   It struck me then that Canadian Pacific is one of the corporations about which people can become emotional. If this had been the hundredth anniversary of a bank or a steel company, would it have moved a man to tears?   Of course, he could have been a CP Rail pensioner who had driven from Revelstoke to Craigellachie for the occasion. Railway men can be quite sentimental about their work, as I have reason to know.   I was once a part-time call boy in Schreiber, Ontario, when almost everybody in town was employed by "The Company" - they spoke of it as if there were no other company in the world - and railroading was more of a way of life than an occupation.   My father maintained locomotives, and to him they seemed to be alive and have personalities:  "She's a cranky bitch, that 2203."   But, I suppose it could be said of any railway that the people who work on it are more caught up in their jobs than workers in other industries.   Role   What makes this particular railway different is that it inspires strong feelings, both positive and negative, among people who have never come closer to it than driving alongside the track.   Those with good feelings about it recognize that if the Canadian Pacific had not been completed when it was, Canada would probably not exist - at least not as we know it.   Those with bad feelings seem to believe that it was constructed for the sole purpose of plundering the Canadian West.   In any case, there can be no doubt that the building of the CPR played a critical role in the creation of our nation. Thus it rings emotional bells in any Canadian who is proud of his country and knows its history.   Its completion sparked one of the first flashes of strictly Canadian national pride, as opposed to the old "nationalism" which identified itself with the British Empire.   Granted that the line was largely built with imported expertise and capital. It was nonetheless regarded as a Canadian accomplishment. A little quasi-colony of five million souls had achieved the greatest feat of railway construction in the world.   Every nation needs its legends, its unifying myths, and the building of the CPR serves this purpose in Canada. Other nationalities have their sagas of seafaring and war. The saga of the CPR, celebrated in song and epic poetry, shows the Canadian at his most heroic.   Symbol   It tells us and our children that Canadians took on nature at its most ferocious and fought it to a draw.   In later years, the CPR train running from sea to sea became a standby of Canadian imagery. It symbolized the vastness and harshness of the land, crossing countless rivers, spanning endless stretches of bush, rushing with its whistle moaning over the empty prairies, scaling the mighty mountains, bursting out to the Pacific and the great world beyond.   By reaching out into that world with its steamship line, Canadian Pacific for the first time gave Canadians an international identity. The thought that it was out there - that it "spanned the world" - lent generations of our countrymen the feeling that they counted for something beyond their own borders, that they could play in the Big Leagues.   Style   It also lent them a sense of class and quality, as exemplified in the superb ambiance and service of Canadian Pacific ocean liners, passenger trains and hotels. It presented Canadians to the world as a people with a sense of style.   In short, Canadian Pacific not only did much to create a nation, it helped to create a nationality. From the day the last spike was driven, Canadians saw themselves in a new light as a tough, venturesome people who could overcome any obstacle.   Out of that confidence came the will to build "instant" cities and to tackle the frontier in a succession of mega-projects which would lead to the opening-up of the country's rich natural resources over the next 100 years.   Development   Today, the liners and passenger trains have become obsolete, but the old Canadian Pacific quality still shows through to the public in its hotels and airline.   "The Company" is no longer as pervasive and powerful as it once was, mainly because of its own success in developing the Canadian West.   Prairie farmers no longer damn the CPR when the tractor breaks or the wells run dry; still, Canadian Pacific remains a national tradition. Having done so much to shape the Canadian character, it is in the Canadian blood. This CP Rail News article is copyright 1985 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.