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Vancouver. August, 1936

The Gate to the Pacific

I have the privilege of beginning my first visit
to you at a historic moment. In these weeks, when you have
been celebrating your Jubilee you have heard much about the fifty
years behind you, during which Vancouver rose from a clearing in the
forest to be the third city of Canada, and one of the most beautiful
cities in the world. I remember that Mr. Kipling, who had travelled
in most parts of the globe, once told me that he had found many places
that he admired and some that he loved; but that he had discovered only
one earthly paradise, and that was in British Columbia. I am a newcomer
who has only had his first glimpse of you, but I can see no
reason to differ from that verdict. You have created a wonderful
metropolis, with the noblest natural background in the world.

Today we are especially concerned with that great effort of
faith and foresight, the railway which links you with the Atlantic.
Fifty years ago I understand that the first transcontinental train
had not yet reached you; you were an incorporated city before you were
the end of steel. You had still to pass through the trial of the
Great Fire. But a year later the railway was completed. Today we
take that miracle for granted, and familiarity has dulled our perception
of the marvels of the achievement. For in sober truth the building
of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a miracle: it was an effort of faith which literally
moved mountains. It gave the lie to the narrow economic interpretation
of history. Canada's natural outlet lay to the south. She
chose, for a far-sighted political ideal, to make her development
move westward, and thereby constituted herself in the fullest sense a
great people with two oceans to serve her needs. She had long been
a nation; but now she had an ample territory and a strategic and

1. Vancouver Jubilee Exhibition, August 1936