Canada Day: Celebrating William Van Horne, Unsung Hero of Canadian History

The man behind the railway that connected Canada’s population for the first time

Canadian Pacific Railway director the Hon. Donald A. Smith drives home the symbolic “last spike” in a ceremony marking the completion of the railway in Craigellachie, B.C., on Nov. 7, 1885. THE CANADIAN PRESS/National Archives of Canada

As Canadians from Newfoundland to British Columbia prepare to celebrate the nation’s 152^nd birthday on July 1, the phrase “from coast to coast” brings to mind an epic chapter in the history of the country.

It is the story of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which melded the country together from coast to coast, and of the towering figure of William Cornelius Van Horne, who simultaneously pulled off the spectacular feat of railway construction and nation building.