Calgary Alberta - The head of Canadian Pacific Railway is taking on critics who say his company hasn't done enough to move a record Western Canadian grain crop to market.
 
In full-page ads in the Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, CEO Hunter Harrison seeks to "set the record straight" on how the railway has managed shipments.
 
Canada's two major railways, CP and Montreal-based Canadian National Railway, have been accused of making oil and other products a higher priority than grain.
 
But in his open letter, Harrison says the bumper crop combined with extreme winter weather across Canada had created what he called a "perfect storm" and that employees have been working around the clock to keep traffic moving.
 
Harrison argues that adding more rail cars and locomotives to an already congested system is the wrong thing to do, like adding more cars to a highway during rush hour.
 
And, despite bad weather in February, Harrison says his company managed a 15 percent increase in grain shipments.
 
Western Canadian farmers have been losing money as huge stocks of grain pile up with no way to get it to customers.

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