Sorry, but the statement that the Canadian government didn't know anything
about American construction of the Alaska Highway until the Indians began
complaining is just plain silly. The Canadian federal government was fully
informed and consented to the Alaska highway project on Canadian territory.
That is not to say that the Americans didn't do things on Canadian territory
first and ask later, but in the case of the Alaska Highway, that was with
Canadian approval right off the bat. American troops were in Dawson Creek
nine days before official consent was given for construction, but common
sense debunks any claim that they were there without the Canadian
governments full knowledge of the reasons why or without the complete
consent of the Canadian government. There is the little matter of moving
those troops over the border. The Americans could not just run the border
with trainloads of troops and would not have short of the absolute direst of
emergencies. Moreover, both the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian
National Railways would automatically had to have been engaged at very high
levels of management to facilitate the large numbers of troop train
movements required to get the American army into Dawson Creek.
You need to do some homework on Canadian history. No American railway built
into Canada without Canadian regulatory approval. Nobody built a railway
anywhere in Canada without first obtaining a charter to do so. Applications
for railway charters anywhere on Canadian territory automatically went
through the federal process. Americans or anybody else attempting grade
construction without regulatory approval would very quickly be introduced to
the long arm of the law.
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff
Inkster; CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.>
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Roger T." <rogertra@...> wrote:
>> The American government even built at least one road into Canada >> without
>> first getting the Canadian government's permission. Alaska Highway,
>> 1940s.
>> The first that the Canadian government learnt about this road being >> built
>> in
>> Canada was when the local natives and or their representatives wrote
>> Ottawa
>> asking why no locals were hired to work on the new road being built
>> through
>> British Columbia. "We're not building a road!" was the first response
>> until
>> they went up to have a look after the locals wrote back and advised >> them
>> to
>> do so.
>>
>> IIRC, some American railroads were built into western Canada before
>> government permission was given but I'm not 100% sure about that.
