Building the Impossible Railway 5: The Desperate Days
Canada's first railroad, coast to coast, is still far from a reality in 1883. Although passes have at last been found in the Rockies, to build through them is another matter. The Laurentian Shield, a vast wasteland north of Lake Superior, also gobbles up the Canadian Pacific Railway's funds. To add worries to Sir John A. Mac donald's Tory government, there is trouble at Duck Lake, where ten Mounties are killed and the rebellion by Louis Riel and his Indian half breeds, the Metis, starts in earnest. There are times when a government seems slow to act, and this is one of them. Narrated by PIERRE BERTON
Producer JAMES MURRAY
Directors ERIC TILL and JAMES MURRAY A cbc production
The Great Railway, £8.50 from bookshops