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Book Review
"If we can't export the scenery, we'll
import the tourists". Thus General Manager Van Horne, in his inimitable style,
proclaimed the philosophy that would establish the image of the Canadian Pacific
Railway as virtually synonymous with that of Canada itself.
Ted Hart of the Archives of the Canadian Rockies has delved deep into the company
archives, as well as many other repositories throughout the country, to produce a
work which is both entertaining and enlightening.
No other organization expended the time and energy to promote Canada abroad, as did
Canadian Pacific in the period between the 1880s and the First World War. Among the
methods employed was the use of such imaginative slogans as: "All
sensible people travel on the C.P.R.; Parisian Politeness on the C.P.R.; Wise Men
of the East go West on the C.P.R.; and By Thunder - Bay passes the C.P.R.".
Not necessarily sophisticated, perhaps, but certainly memorable and effective.
The three main personalities which emerge through Mr. Hart's work are Van Horne,
always looking for ways to promote the road; George Ham, a veteran newspaperman
from winnipeg who headed up the company's first publicity department; and John
Murray Gibbon, the prolific author and promoter of the Folksong and Handicraft
festivals which were major attractions at Canadian Pacific Hotels during the 1920s
and 1930s.
Complete with hundreds of black and white and colour graphics, many from the
company's archival collection, "The Selling of Canada" is a charming
narrative of the company's promotional campaign that even had the audacity to usurp
those stalwart sentinels of Canadian nationalism and advertise them as the
"Canadian Pacific Rockies".
Dave Jones
Canadian Pacific Public
Relations & Advertising PO Box 6042 Sta. A Montreal PQ H3C 3E4
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