In railroad facilities Canada, if anything, is fifty years ahead of her time, so well are they developed. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, from Monckton, New Brunswick to Winnipeg and thence to Prince Rupert, B.C., which was commenced in 1905, and finished in 1915, was leased on its completion to the Grand Trunk Railway Company for fifty years. Owing to the war, and the financial difficulties in which the constructing company found itself, the system of 22,000 miles of line was taken over by the Government in 1921, after an arbitration which excited much comment on both sides of the Atlantic. The decision regarding it was given by the Canadian Grand Trunk Arbitration Board at Montreal, headed by Sir Walter Cassels, and one of the members of the Board was no less a person than ex-President Taft, now Chief Justice of the United States. As a conspicuous result of political action the { 478} construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is still more the subject of politics than of history, and it is quite likely to remain in that phase for some time.
The year 1921 will also be memorable for the work of the joint American-Canadian Commission appointed to investigate the possibility of the proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterways. It was estimated that the initial cost of canalising the St. Lawrence River, constructing six dams in the rapids and improving the St. Claire and Detroit Rivers will be 253 million dollars, the up-keep requiring 2 1/2 million dollars annually. Fortunately considerable revenue can be made through the sale of the five million horse-power obtained from the dams which will pay a large part of the carrying charges. The great value of such a public work is in the relief from congestion on the railways, particularly the American, at crop-moving time. One of the most important results will be that Port Arthur, Ontario will virtually become a seaport.
In all this work of expansion and progress the women of Canada have taken their place. This was recognised when the War Committee of the Borden Cabinet called a Conference of representatives of women's organisations in February, 1918. The initiative was rewarded by a closer co-operation on the part of these societies with the Government, especially in connection with the conservation of food, the compilation of a National Register and the increased production in industrial occupations. Later in 1918, an Act was passed by which Canadian { 479} women received the Federal electoral vote on the same basis as men. In addition to electing a woman as member of the provincial legislature, the British Columbia Assembly had the honour first of choosing one of the fair sex for Speaker which, however, was declined, Mrs. Mary E. Smith, the Labour candidate-elect, maintaining that she could be more useful as a private member than either as Speaker or a member in the Government. When Mrs. Irene Parlby was similarly successful in Lacombe, Alberta, she was not so modest when Premier Greenfield offered her a position without portfolio in the United Farmers' Cabinet. To those who have the feminine movement at heart, these instances will certainly be a source of much encouragement.