Those rails that lay behind the stone cairn at Craigellachie have been there for one hundred and twenty six years today.
I’m speaking figuratively of course.
The actual rails from 1885 are long gone, replaced by CWR (Continuous Welded Rail), who knows when.
For me, Nov. 7 each year is a time to reflect on the beginning of Canada.
Oh, you can believe we became a country back on July 1, 1867 if you like, shortly after those guys met in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.
But to me, Nov. 7, 1885 is when we really became a country.
When Donald Smith drove that Last Spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass early one damp, grey, November morning, that was the day we turned east and west, not south, to become the nation of Canada.
William Slim
Sooke