The train, symbol of national identity and Canadian unity

With its nails planted in the earth, sand and stone of practically all the provinces, the railway physically attaches the country. But its role is just as solidly anchored in the collective imagination. Despite a great importance in the transport of passengers, the train retains a central role in the definition of national identity.

Like a long iron snake, the Canadian crosses the trees and rocks of the Canadian shield, the fields and the plains of the meadows, the mountains and the glaciers of the Rockies to finish its race a few kilometers from the Pacific Ocean.

This legendary train, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is the last one that connects Canada to the other and connects millions of Canadians to very different realities. This notion speaks to Matthew Gray, an English -speaking Ontarian Francophile: I like the fact that it is a link between the parts of a very large country.

The thirties, who worked in federal policy in Ottawa, was very worried for several years of the division in the country and the issues which threaten national unity.

The institutions that bind us together as a country, such as the Canadian Parliament, CBC/Radio-Canada, the train, are threatened. They can encourage discussions between us and it is important to protect them and [utiliser]he continues with the barely veiled threats from the United States since the election of Donald Trump.

The Republican president has repeatedly proposed to make Canada the 51st American state and to use the economic force to achieve it.

I want to see more than Canada. I want to understand the country I live in. I want to understand the regions, I want to understand the peoples who live in this very large country.

The train to the foundation of national identity

The history of the country’s creation is intimately linked with that of the development of the train in North America.

In Canada, what is special is that the train was born with the countrysays Yves Frenette, professor of history and holder of the Research Chair of Canada on migration, circulation and French-speaking communities at the University of Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg.

Indeed, to extend to the east and then to the west, the politicians of Ottawa promise to build railways which will, first, join central Canada to the Maritimes. It was the intercolonialrecalls Yves Frenette. The same promise will then be made to annex the western territories and go to British Columbia.

From the 1880s, the construction of the Pacific Canadian will transport immigrants to the western provinces and goods that came from central Canada will be sold in the provinces of meadows.

As such, he also plays a central role in the colonization of the country by accelerating the seizure of land belonging to the Aboriginal people. This infrastructure also has a huge human cost: many immigrants, especially Chinese, are recruited for its construction and work under excruciating conditions. Historians believe, for example, that of the 15,000 Chinese workers recruited, at least 600 died during the construction.

The train therefore has a fundamental role in the birth of Canada and, necessarily, it will have an impact on national identity. Like the Royal Canada Gendarmerie or the Hudson Bay Company, the train will be part of Canada’s national novelcontinues the professor.

A way to maintain the country’s cohesion

One hundred and fifty-eight years later, it is clear that it is still the case, even if this symbol has lost its superb. The development of the road network has, in fact, led to the practical and symbolic importance of the train.

But you have to qualify. I do not think that it is all the strata of the population or all the age groups for whom the train has the same symbolic valuenote Yves Frenette.

It does not have the same symbolic importance in national identity among French speakers as among English speakers, and perhaps it would be necessary to distinguish between French speakers in the West and Francophones in the east of Manitoba.

The fact remains that, even weakened, this symbol is an absolute necessity to continue to unify this countrybelieves the Passenger of the Canadian Simon Story.

I do not think I have never imagined that the country would be without railroads. If the Canadians knew we were going to take this service to them, they would probably revolt to keep itcontinues Le Torontois, which has already gone several times in western Canada, but of which it is the first train trip across the country.

I think that by growing up, we have always been made to believe that Canada had no identity. And the political tension that we currently feel with the United States has made us even more proud of what we have. This trip alone shows how different this country is, but how united it is.

A vector of empathy for his neighbor

A little further in the Plus car class, Joanne Harris, quietly sitting at her headquarters, shares this opinion. The Newfoundland is even more measuring the importance of the train because its native island has not been for decades.

Despite this, she is passionate about this type of trip and has traveled almost the entire via rail network in Canada. One of the things I noticed while looking at the old cards, it is how much the train went everywhere. We have lost this link between rural communitiesshe is sorry.

However, one of the main challenges inherent in Canada is that it is large and not populated. The low population density in certain regions ensures that there is a certain ignorance of the reality experienced by Canadians.

If you had the opportunity to go to the North and meet the inhabitants of these regions, observe the landscape and see how they live, it could arouse more empathy and reduce mockery and divisions around social problems, so specific to one region and unrelated to anothernotes Joanne Harris.

In the current political climate [le train] would be a great tool of unity and empathy, because knowing your neighbors, whatever the distance, creates links. We lack this type of connection when we fly over the country. This creates cohesion and understanding of the country in which we live, from one ocean to anothershe continues.

At a time when the United States shamelessly express annexationist inclinations, the railway strengthens the national identity of Canada. Via Rail recently announced discounts on his tickets to encourage Canadians to travel by train this summer, under the leadership of a federal government program to promote Canadian tourism in response to the trade war with the United States.