Golden Routes

The beginnings of the company we now know as Canadian Pacific can still evoke fascination and wonder. This is with good reason, for the company’s early operations have a larger than life quality to them. In its glory days, Canadian Pacific carried passengers and freight across Canada, built luxury hotels for wealthy tourists and straddled the globe with its shipping and cruising vessels, while providing an avenue for the rapid settlement of the Canadian West. This multifaceted story is retold in Barry Lane’s new book Canadian Pacific: The Golden Age of Travel.

The Regina-born author studied history at Royal Military College. Later he served at the United Nations Emergency Force’s headquarters in the Sinai. More recently he retired from the vice-presidency of Mendel Tours, a company he co‑founded in Quebec City to teach Canadian history and culture. In this capacity he lectured extensively on Canadian Pacific’s history on rail tours across Canada and on cruise...