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2003-
Winter 2005

Canadian Pacific Railway Employee Communications
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Berton Kept the Dream Alive


Pierre Berton during the filming of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation's National Dream.

With author Pierre Berton's death on 30 Nov 2004, the CPR lost a great chronicler of its past glories. We also bid farewell to an elder statesman whose views on our transportation choices for the future are going to be sadly missed.
 
If you're over 50, you'll remember the sensation caused by the publication of Berton's two-volume epic on the building of the CPR back in the early 1970s. If you haven't hit the mid-century mark, then you missed something that would have made your heart swell with pride in being associated with the CPR. In both "The National Dream" and "The Last Spike", Berton marshalled the English language in his inimitable way and sent it off to paint a graphic account of the human trials and travails of building "The Impossible Railway". With his newsman's sense and his incredible facility for engaging the reader, Berton effectively became the greatest unpaid publicity agent this company ever possessed.
 
The passage of more than 30 years and numerous re-readings have not dulled my original admiration for Berton's skill in relating the railway's place in history. The language is so alive, he could inspire with only a few, carefully chosen words. For example, the Canadian West before the coming of the CPR was known as the Great Lone Land. Berton neatly summarized the effect of the railway's construction by simply describing the West afterward as " a land no longer lonely". Soul-stirring stuff.
 
Hard to imagine now, but the spotlight Berton focused on the CPR wasn't universally welcomed at the time. The early 1970s were difficult days for railroading, an industry already down on its knees financially in the northeastern U.S. In Canada, it was the time of the rancorous debates over the less-than-compensatory Crow Rate for grain traffic and the rationalization of a branch line network and a passenger service that had been hammered by competition from government-funded highways, waterways, and air facilities.
 
Misguided railway critics found ammo in Berton's books, pointing to such things as the lands granted to the railway for building the transcontinental line as proof - at least in their minds - that the CPR was somehow shirking its historic responsibilities. These were issues some executives wished would remain dormant.
 
But those things are largely resolved today. What remains is the glorification of the spirited people who built the CPR that's still to be found in the numerous reprints of Berton's books. What will be missed is the praise for the benefits of railroading he expressed in later years. He was a vocal environmentalist and he spoke often at public meetings and media forums about the insanity of the choices our society has made.
 
In Berton's opinion, the answer was greater reliance on trains. He wanted more freight off the highways and on the rails. He believed commuter trains were the answer to controlling suburban sprawl and breaking the North American automotive addiction. He predicted a revival of the popularity of fast passenger trains on routes such as the Quebec City-to-Windsor corridor. Berton put his money where his mouth was on this last point, frequently taking the train when he went to Kingston, Ottawa, or Montreal for book launches or speaking engagements.
 
Berton was a humorous, but brutally frank person. Shortly before his death, he told me he was proud of his 50 books, but he didn't believe they would outlive him by more than one generation. On this point, I think he was wrong.
 
When he came out to greet the arrival of 2816 at a CPR grade crossing near his home just north of Toronto in 2003, he was swarmed by railroaders who wanted to congratulate him on his railway writings.
 
Many were younger employees, who had him autograph their already dog-eared copies of the books.
 
That's proof to me that Berton won't be forgotten. I think the onslaught of time will make him even more appreciated in railway circles. Let's hope - as he did - that there will be other writers who will follow him in telling the many tales of the CPR - past, present, and future.


This Momentum magazine article is copyright 2005 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
 
 
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