A major change in the regional transportation network took place in January 1901, 117 years ago. In that month, it was announced that the Canadian Pacific Railway had taken control of the Canadian Pacific Navigation
Company.
CP Navigation had been incorporated in January 1883 by Capt. John Irving of New Westminster, and consolidated the fleets of the Pioneer Line and the Hudson鈥檚 Bay
Company.
Irving鈥檚 business ran passenger and freight steamship service on the lower Fraser River (between New Westminster and Yale) and among New Westminster, Vancouver and Vancouver Island points.
The arrival of railway service seriously hurt the company鈥檚 business on the Fraser, leading to the sale of the company to the CPR.
After the formal transfer took place in 1903, the CPR began its sa国际传媒 Coast Steamship Service and built its Princess Line to a fleet of 32 ships. The CPR provided passenger service on the coast until the 1970s.
When the purchase was announced, the editors of the Daily Colonist expressed optimism that the deal was a good one for all concerned.
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We are enabled to announce that the Canadian Pacific Railway Company has acquired a controlling interest in the stock of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company.
They have purchased the greater part of the shares at what is accepted by the sellers as a very good price; at the same time, it will give the Canadian Pacific Railway Company a property which will be more valuable and capable of development in their hands than it might otherwise be.
The full intentions of the railway company, we are given to understand, are to spend a considerable amount of money in adding modern, suitable vessels to the fleet and improving the present fleet, in order that the trade of the province, as a whole, may not only be protected, but improved.
While much attention has of late been directed to the agitation for an improved service, as well as to the competition between the cities of Victoria and Vancouver, it is not the intention of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to ask a bonus from either city, but to seek and develop trade wherever offering.
With such a powerful corporation taking hold of the Navigation Company, in connection with its large system, it is more than probable that trade properly belonging to the province, hitherto diverted to the Puget Sound cities, will be gained for British Columbia.
Much is due on the part of the province to the principal shareholders of the Navigation Company who have handed over their individual interests in order to promote the welfare of British Columbia.
Clarence Campbell Chipman, the commissioner of the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company, who arrived here on Wednesday last, has conducted the negotiations between the various parties and brought them to this successful issue.
Daily Colonist, Jan. 12, 1901
