Strathcona could have been "Smithland"
Suggested wording for illustrated display commemorating the 150th anniversary of BC's entry into Confederation, to be located in Strathcona Park. Strathcona British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 on the promise of a transcontinental railway within ten years. That promise was derailed by the Pacific Scandal that brought down John A MacDonald's government in 1873. One of the Conservative mutineers that ended the corrupt deal between the government and Hugh Allan was Donald Smith. Smith's own associates then built the railroad and acquired huge quantities of real estate, Smith himself bending the last spike in 1885. Smith was a central or background figure in the Hudson's Bay Company, industry and banking, the CPR, Vancouver real estate and just about everything else in the massive expansion of Canadian colonial industrial capitalism of the late 1800's. A loyal supporter of British imperialism, he was sober, hard-working, incredibly wealthy and well-connected, and a s...
