(This Letter was sent to the Times Colonist on November 7 2025)
Dear Editor,
140 years ago today (November 7th, 2025) the last spike was driven near Revelstoke BC, completing what is now known as the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway. It took just 4 years for government and private railway tycoons to complete that cross-continental railway. Today, we have endured 20 years of dithering, broken promises, and outright denial trying to reinvigorate the railway just on this Island alone. Similar efforts span the country and have been just as unsuccessful.
Our Prime Minister talks of “big and bold” budgets and nation building projects yet Canadians have less ability to get from one town to another without a car in Canada today than they did 100 years ago. Private bus networks seem to rise and fall like the tides. Flying is either expensive or soul sucking, but usually both.
A quick glance to nearly every other G20 nation should make it clear. Successful nations connect their people together.
Canadians deserve a public transportation system across all provinces and territories that is accessible, reliable, and affordable for all. We seem to have handed over that legacy to corporations who are less and less of the nation we built and incapable of delivering a cohesive network. All Canadians, First Nations and Immigrants alike, should have a hand in rebuilding these connections. It is time to rebuild a public rail and bus transportation network for all.
At the end of the line in Port Alberni,
Chris Alemany