Windsor Ontario - Re:  2015 Railroader of the Year:  Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific, by William C. Vantuono, Editor in Chief, Railway Age, 19 Jan 2015.
 
U.S. magazine Railway Age made a poor choice in recently selecting Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison as its 2014 Railroader of the Year.
 
That choice seems based purely on stock price and Wall Street interest and not upon any larger questions.
 
What are those larger issues?
 
To begin, Harrison laid off over 4,500 actual railroaders after coming out of retirement to take over CP in 2012.
 
It would be interesting to get those workers' thoughts on Harrison's award.
 
Secondly, Harrison, a U.S. citizen, has called the safety regulations enacted by the Canadian government after the Lake Megantic rail disaster an "over-reaction".
 
With his publicly stated goal to double CP's profit by 2018, he clearly sees regulations as slowing that growth down and disregards the fact that he has no vote about Canadian law.
 
Thirdly, in the you-cannot-make-this-up department, Harrison endorsed the 2014 intended destruction of community gardens beside an unused portion of CP track in Vancouver so as to force that city into buying the property at CP's price.
 
When the city didn't, CP said it would reactivate a track that had sat for two decades and then destroyed the gardens before harvest.
 
Those gardens included one planted by children at a Montessori school, who were unable to return in September to see the results of their work.
 
There is more to life and railroading than hollow stock price and it, unfortunately, appears that Harrison and his supporters have forgotten that.
 
With tunnel vision, Harrison's immediate goal is to have CP run faster trains, and longer ones through Windsor, so as to boost stock price.
 
I would be embarrassed to own CP stock right now, as doing so gives support to Harrison's approach.
 
Let's hope that Railway Age selects an individual with a broader social view for its accolades in 2015.

Chad Beharriell.