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Four years after Confederation, British Columbia agreed
to join Canada as a province of the Dominion. But
this arrangement was not without its conditions. British
Columbia was the westernmost province in Canada and the
farthest from the nation’s capitol. Before
agreeing to join Canada, the colony demanded that the Dominion
government build a railway extending all the way from central
Canada to the west coast. The colonists believed that the railway would
encourage European immigrants to travel across Canada and
settle in the west. This
building of the railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR),
was delayed for nine years until construction finally began
in the spring of 1880. The
construction of the railway, however, did not immediately
bring large amounts of European immigrants. The
construction of the CPR brought American and Chinese immigrants
north from the United States and Chinese immigrants east
across the Pacific from Asia.1
Initially, the railway was to be built by white labourers only, but the
province’s population was
too small to support the
high demand for workers.2 The few labourers it could provide did not
have any experience in railway
construction. In
addition to the lack of experienced
workers, was a lack of money. The white workers demanded higher wages than
immigrant workers. Had it not been for the Chinese immigrants, Onderdonk
would have exceeded his budget.3 When
1500 experienced Chinese
workers came from the United
States in the first two years
of construction, the contractor
in charge of the CPR, Andrew
Onderdonk, could not turn
them down.4 Labour
contractors began working
out of Victoria bringing
Chinese in from Hong Kong.5 The
Royal Commission on Chinese
Immigration of 1885 reported
a colossal 15,701 Chinese
immigrants arriving in Canada
between winter of 1881 and
the spring of 1884.6 In 1882, at the peak of construction and of
immigration, approximately
9000 workers were employed
by the CPR.7 Of these 9000,
6500 were Chinese.8 The Chinese railway workers suffered badly during their years building
the railroad. Andrew
Onderdonk estimated that 500-600 Chinese
workers died building his railway while other
estimates put the figure closer
to 1500.9 Although
working conditions were far from comfortable, it was not
the labour that caused their illnesses. Malnutrition,
scurvy, winter colds, and other illnesses thinned the Chinese
population on the railway, but by the time the last spike
was driven into the ground in 1885, the Chinese population
in British Columbia had been multiplied exponentially.
Endnotes
1.Edgar Wickberg, ed. From China
to Canada: A History of the
Chinese Communities in Canada (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart Ltd,
1982), 21.
2.David Chuenyan Lai, "Chinese: The Changing
Geography of the
Largest Visible
Minority" in Canadian
Western Geographical
Series 36( 2001): 151.
3.David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within
Cities in Canada (Vancouver:
UBC Press, 1988), 32.
4.Wickberg, From China to Canada, 21.
5.Wickberg, From China to Canada,
21.
6.Wickberg, From China to Canada, 22.
7.David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada, 32.
8.David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada, 32.
9.David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within
Cities in Canada, 32.
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