Prince Edward Island Railway - Confederation

Confederation

The United Kingdom had consistently encouraged the small colony to enter into Canadian Confederation, something which it had been avoiding since playing host to the Charlottetown Conference a decade earlier. The railway construction debts pushed the colony into reconsidering Confederation, and following further negotiations, Prince Edward Island became a province of Canada on July 1, 1873.

The understated provision in the Prince Edward Island Terms of Union reads as follows:

That the railways under contract and in course of construction for the Government of the Island, shall be the property of Canada;