Systems and Connections (continued)

Figure 16 Exterior view of Grand Trunk mail car No. 5, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, ca 1865 (CN000410)

      On the eve of Confederation in 1867, railways were a proven technology full of potential as a means of communication and an instrument of commerce. Railway mail service, which substantially increased both the speed and regularity of mail service in Canada, was one of the early benefits brought about by the new communication system (Fig. 16). Passenger travel was also expanded and enhanced through the introduction of sleeping and dining cars (Fig. 17) to service the increasingly longer distances that trains, and passengers, traveled. The new railway technology figured prominently in the initial formation of Canada. The British North America Act of 1867 contained a specific reference to the new central government's responsibility to physically connect Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario with a railway line. Within ten years, the Dominion Government supervised and paid for the construction of The Intercolonial Railway of Canada connecting Halifax and much of Atlantic Canada with Quebec and Ontario (Fig. 18). As one of the most important railway lines in Canadian history, it was a precondition of Confederation; without it, there would have been no Canada as we know it.