I'd love to see a transcontinental Canadian railway furnish an outlet for those lacking opportunity at present. Britain would be in a more stable situation if it could feed and employ itself from within the 1830s/1840s empire.
Something like the dashed Deluth-Bismark-Billings-Helena-Spokane-Tacoma route? Although a straighter, less politically sensitive (solid red to Seattle) route north of the Missouri River would be easier in many ways. Use the industrial lead as a means of colonising the north west faster than the USA. Control the rails, control the land. Maybe push spurs south until the USA objects enough to stop you? Revoke the Hudson Bay Co. royal charter to speed colonisation?
How about a Red river railroad to the Mississippi? Start establishing a case for 45 degrees north as the border from there. Lewis and Clark were trespassing.
Something like the dashed Deluth-Bismark-Billings-Helena-Spokane-Tacoma route? Although a straighter, less politically sensitive (solid red to Seattle) route north of the Missouri River would be easier in many ways. Use the industrial lead as a means of colonising the north west faster than the USA. Control the rails, control the land. Maybe push spurs south until the USA objects enough to stop you? Revoke the Hudson Bay Co. royal charter to speed colonisation?
How about a Red river railroad to the Mississippi? Start establishing a case for 45 degrees north as the border from there. Lewis and Clark were trespassing.