alternatehistory.com

So in going through what I want to do with Vancouver in a couple things I'm working on I've come across quite a bit of material suggesting that the Canadian Northern really had a decent amount of potential, in a way that the Grand Trunk Pacific/National Transcontinental system really didn't. What are people's thoughts on Canadian Pacific bailing out Mackenzie and Mann toward the end of the war rather than letting CNor fall into bankruptcy and eventually Canadian National?

There seem to be a lot of implication wrapped up in the idea... CNor/CP itself seems like it would probably work pretty well, but losing CNor would seem to be the end for most of the Grand Trunk Pacific and National Transcontinental system without the better bits that went into Canadian National... Could CP actually just swallow up the Grand Trunk proper sometime in the thirties? I've got my doubts this would be politically acceptable even if they COULD do it, so I wonder if a mini CN might happen anyway. Likelihood here? At the same time, if the transcons are left to their own devices bailing out GTR as a private entity seems a hell of a lot more plausible than trying to create anything private out of the mess we had OTL.

The other thing in the back of my head is if this might be the push actually nationalise CP and get a for all intents and purposes completely public railway... CP goes into depression with substantial debt load from CNor, is still a long way from loved out west, and ends up rolled into CN sometime in the thirties... I'm picturing a somewhat failling CP, financially disastrous quasi public GTR bailout and perceptions of CP being more of a monopoly than ever (creating fears of a true monopoly if they grab GTR) interacting in potentially interesting ways here...
Top