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22 After winning the 1904 election, Laurier wrote to the Grand Trunk Railway's chairman, “Our victory is so complete as to leave no doubt that our railway policy is extremely popular.” Quoted in Stevens, , Towards the Inevitable, 154.Google Scholar

23 Regehr discusses the connection between the Canadian Northern and the Bank of Commerce in The Canadian Northern Railway, 407–08Google Scholar. His evidence is corroborated and expanded upon by Bliss, , A Canadian Millionaire, 225, 253–55.Google Scholar

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28 Regehr and Bliss diverge on the extent of involvement in the government's secret agreement to back the Bank of Commerce. Regehr alleges that the Commerce's board was again left in the dark, while Bliss claims to have found evidence of prior knowledge in the board's minutes. Both agree that Parliament was not aware of these arrangements.

29 Letter from Sir Robert Borden to Sir Edmund Walker, May 27, 1915, National Archives of Canada, Papers of Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Borden (MG 26, H 1 a), Vol. 31, 12862. Hereafter referred to as “Borden Papers.”

30 Letter from Sir Thomas White to Sir Joseph W. Flavelle, June 30, 1915, National Archives of Canada, Papers of Sir Thomas White (MG 27, II D 18), Vol. 13, File 55, 8993. Hereafter referred to as “White Papers.”

31 Quoted in Eagle, , “Sir Robert Borden,” 62.Google Scholar

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34 Letter from White to Borden, January 6, 1916, in White Papers, Vol. 14, File 59, 9854.

35 This was the assessment of the Secretary of the British Railways Board, given to Canada's High Commissioner in London, quoted in Regehr, The Canadian Northern Railway, 416.Google Scholar

36 Plewman, W. R., Adam Beck and the Ontario Hydro (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1947), 124.Google Scholar

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40 Acworth, W. M., Historical Sketch of State Railway Ownership (London: John Murray, 1920), xi.Google Scholar

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43 Loomis, Edward E. and Platten, John W., Report on the Canadian Northern Railway System (New York, 1917), 1.Google Scholar

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49 Cable from Borden in London to White in Ottawa marked “Secret,” March 30, 1917, Borden Papers, Vol. 31, 12928.

50 Cable from British Empire Trust Company to Borden and White, October 27, 1917, Borden Papers, 12254; and letter from R. M. Hornepayne to Borden dated October 27, 1917, Borden Papers, 12256.

51 Nordlinger (On the Autonomy of the Democratic State, 74Google Scholar) uses this virile language in arguing that even when the state acts in accord with the preferences of powerful societal interests, it exercises authority which is distinct from, and beyond the reach of, these forces. Although the Bank of Commerce could have recouped its investment by driving CNoR into backruptcy and invoking the secret guarantees it still would have suffered from the ensuing scandal. Only government could resolve the crisis while preserving legitimacy.

52 Eagle, , “Sir Robert Borden,” 63.Google Scholar

53 For an overview of the abrupt transformation of the international political economy that occurred during the First World War, see Granatstein, J. L., How Britain's Weakness Forced Canada into the Arms of the United States (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989), 9–18.Google Scholar

54 Letter from William Acworth to Sir Thomas White, April 5, 1917, White Papers, Vol. 14, File 59, 9993–94. Emphasis added.

55 Cable from Sir Thomas White to Sir Robert Borden, June 14, 1918, in the papers of Rt. Hon. Arthur Meighen, National Archives of Canada, MG 26 I, Vol. 27, 15, 552. Hereafter referred to as “Meighen Papers.”

56 Government of Canada, Report of the Royal Commission, xxvi.Google Scholar

57 Quoted in Stevens, , Towards the Inevitable, 489.Google Scholar

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60 Quoted in Stevens, , Towards the Inevitable, 499Google Scholar. Emphasis added.

61 Government of Canada, Grand Trunk Arbitration: The Award and Reasons for Award (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1921).Google Scholar

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63 Ibid., 27.

64 Quoted in note 30.