the Manitoba and Northwestern from
Portage to Gladstone, and construction was pushed a hundred miles
northwest from Gladstone to Dauphin. Next year Lake Winnipegosis was
reached. Then the partners looked eastward. The coming need of the
West was an outlet from Winnipeg to Lake Superior, to supplement the
Canadian Pacific. Accordingly in 1898, under powers given by Dominion,
Ontario, and Minnesota charters, construction was begun both at
Winnipeg and near Port Arthur. Three years later the line was
completed. Meantime the earlier road had branched westerly at Sifton,
and by 1900 had crossed the border into Saskatchewan at Erwood; while
in 1899, in amalgamation with the Winnipeg Great Northern, chartered
and subsidized to Hudson Bay, the name of the {186} combined roads was
changed to the Canadian Northern.

Then came the coup which first made the public and rival railways
realize the ambitious reach of the plans of the new railway. It will
be recalled that when, in 1888, the ban upon competition southward with
the Canadian Pacific had been lifted, the Northern Pacific had entered
Manitoba. It had gradually built up a system of three hundred and
twenty miles, but had not given the competition looked for, dividing
traffic with the Canadian Pacific rather than cutting rates. Now the
parent line was in the receiver's hands, and its straits gave the
Manitoba government its opportunity. It leased for 999 years all the
Manitoba lines of the Northern Pacific, but decided it could not
profitably operate them itself without connection with the lakes. The
only question was whether to re-lease them to the Canadian Pacific or
to the Canadian Northern. After a lively contest the younger road
secured the prize. At a stroke it thus obtained extensive terminals in
Winnipeg, a line south to the American border, branches westward
through fertile territory, and a link which practically closed the gap
between its eastern and its western roads.

{187}

The Canadian Northern had now become the third largest system in the
Dominion, stretching from Lake Superior to Saskatchewan, with nearly
thirteen hundred miles in operation in 1902. The feeders were
extending through the rich farming lands of the West; the line to Port
Arthur supplemented the Canadian Pacific, providing a second spout to
the funnel. But this merely local success did not long content its
promoters. They announced their intention to build from sea to sea.
Tr