shs's ad

Encouraging British and European immigrants to settle on the prairies was part of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald's plan to establish Canadian sovereignty over the newly-acquired North-West Territories. Stretching from Ontario's border to British Columbia, (still a British colony), the Territories were transferred to Canada by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869. Settlement was an urgent matter, and so was a railway to carry settlers west. There was already talk in the mid-western United States of expanding north of the border. Sir John's promise of a trans-Canada railway persuaded British Columbia to enter Confederation in 1871.