Joseph Howe

In 1851, during a speech at the Mason's Hall in Halifax, Nova Scotian editor and future statesman Joseph Howe had this to say about the railway:

"I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, yet I will venture to predict that in five years we shall make the journey hence to Quebec and Montreal, and home through Portland and St. John, by rail; and I believe that many in this room will live to hear the whistle of the steam engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains, and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in five or six days."

The last spike for the railway linking Canada from coast to coast was driven in 1885, fulfilling the national dream.

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