This episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.com
The Canadian Pacific created a nation. But it also destroyed nations in the process.
This is our third and final episode in our series about the building of the CPR and the foundation of Canada. And at the heart of this story is an unescapable question — what did it cost to create this country? And who paid that terrible price?
In the years after Confederation, Canada signed treaties with numerous Indigenous nations on the plains, promising aid in the event of a famine. But when the buffalo were slaughtered into extinction, the Canadian government was unable — or unwilling — to fulfill its treaty obligations.
At the same time, the CPR was facing financial ruin. And if it fell, Canada as an independent political entity would almost certainly cease to exist.
Famine, disease, economic collapse — all of these calamities came to a head in 1885, the single most significant year in Canadian history.
Which is when Louis Riel rose up once again.
