Description
Book SynopsisThe history of the north-shore railways provides a case study in the complexities of industrial development in nineteenth-century Quebec. Constructed in the fifteen years following Confederation, the North Shore and the Montreal Colonization Railways reinforced Quebec's integration into a transcontinental unit. Yet bankruptcy of both companies in 1875 forced the provincial government to assume ownership of the railways and to shoulder a financial burden that kept the province preoccupied, weak, and subservient to Ottawa.
Diverse political, clerical, and business interests united to construct the railways and to manoeuvre them from private companies into a public venture and ultimately into the Canadian Pacific system.
The two railways brought new concentrations of capital and power that cut across French and English ethnic lines and sharpened regional rivalries. Along the south short of the St. Lawrence both French- and English-speaking inhabitants protested against the province
