Who drove the “last spike” of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, a symbol of national unity?
- Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona)
- Louis Riel
- Sir John A. Macdonald
- Sir Sandford Fleming
Answer: Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona)
Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the CPR, drove the last spike on November 7, 1885. The finished railway joined the country from sea to sea and became a powerful symbol of unity. Sir Sandford Fleming is known for time zones.
Learn more: A railway from sea to sea and moving westward
- British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast.
- On November 7, 1885, Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the CPR, drove the last spike.
- The CPR was paid for by British and American investors and built by European and Chinese workers.
- After the railway, Chinese people faced discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized for it in 2006.
- During the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s, one million British and one million American immigrants came to Canada, and the economy became more industrialized.
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation. He encouraged immigration to the West, and his portrait is on the $5 bill.
- The railway made it possible for 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway and Sweden to settle in the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.
- Thousands of miners came to the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s, as celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service.