Commentary
Was the Canadian Pacific Railway built by Chinese labourers? The short answer is yes, some of it was. But all 4,800 kilometres of it? Certainly not. Why, then, do some people say, “The Chinese built the Canadian Pacific Railway” or even that “Canada was literally built by Chinese.” It’s not just posting and trolling. The Canadian Labour Congress states, “Over 17,000 Chinese immigrants built the Canadian Pacific Railway.” And B.C.’s NDP Parliamentary Secretary, Mable Elmore, said in 2023: “Between 1881 and 1884, more than 17,000 Chinese railroad workers came to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.”
While it is true that thousands of Chinese “coolies” did some of the most dangerous work on the railway, their role is often inflated, without qualification or context. Yes, at least 600 died on the job. Of the rest, about half returned to China, and others were, or became, immigrants….