Building The Canadian Pacific Railway
During his time with the Bank of Montreal, Angus was free to pursue opportunities for private investment. In 1868, he went into partnership with the future Lords Mount Stephen and Strathcona at the time that they were becoming interested in developing railways across to the Canadian West. Their ventures were largely financed by the Bank of Montreal, of which Mount Stephen was President and as his number two at the bank, Angus was closely involved. Angus resigned from the bank in 1879, briefly relocating to St. Paul, Minnesota to represent the group's interests there as vice-president of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad.
In Minnesota, Angus had worked closely with James J. Hill, constructing and improving the line. But by 1880, he spent most of his time with Mount Stephen as they made numerous trips to Ottawa, New York and London to negotiate the land grants, subsidies and building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. With Angus providing the analysis and Mount Stephen the acumen, they proved to be a formidable pair. Angus was General Manager of the CPR until the appointment of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne in 1882, when he became vice-president. In that position, Angus was entrusted with the creation of the eastern network, notably the extension of the Ontario and Quebec Railway and the purchase of the western section of the 'Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway' in 1882.
The construction of the CPR was fraught with financial peril, testing the resilience of the syndicate - Hill resigned in 1883, followed by Angus' close friend Duncan McIntyre the next year. In order to lobby for funds more successfully, Angus resigned from the St. Paul Railway in 1884. The CPR, completed in 1885, was an immediate financial success, becoming "the world's greatest transportation system". He remained vice-president of the CPR after Lord Mount Stephen resigned from an active role as president in 1888. Apparently never aspiring to the position, Angus supported Stephen’s selection of Van Horne as president and, 11 years later, Van Horne's choice of Lord Shaughnessy as his successor. Angus would serve as a director and committee member of the CPR for over 40 years, necessitating frequent trips to the Canadian Pacific Offices on Trafalgar Square in London.
Read more about this topic: Richard B. Angus
Famous quotes containing the words building, canadian, pacific and/or railway:
“A publisher is a specialised form of bank or building society, catering for customers who cannot cope with life and are therefore forced to write about it.”
—Colin Haycraft (b. 1929)
“We’re definite in Nova Scotia—’bout things like ships ... and fish, the best in the world.”
—John Rhodes Sturdy, Canadian screenwriter. Richard Rossen. Joyce Cartwright (Ella Raines)
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)