The Last Spike[/Straw] : Report of the Task Force on Rail Passenger Service

Mazankowski, Don, Sinclair Stevens, Guy Charbonneau, Fred McCain, Tom Siddon, and David Kilgour

Ottawa ?, 1981


$50.00
Shipping Information
Details

Card covers, side stitched with staples, 147 pages, 8.5x11 in - 21.5x28 cm, B&W graphs and photographs.

Condition

Cover corners creased and worn, indented at staples. Closed tear to front cover at spine edge, back cover marked in one spot.

Notes

This report by a six-person committee appointed by the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada criticizes 1981 legislation by the Liberal Party-led federal government to cut back or cancel Via Rail services. The Committee held hearings to determine public opinions concerning the decision to cut Via’s budget, highlight the decision’s deleterious effects on passenger rail service, and condemn Transport Minister Jean-Luc Pepin’s process of enacting the legislation. The first part of the report summarizes the committee’s mandates, findings, and conclusions, while the second part lists hearing speakers, summarizes their testimonies, and provides a short summary of Via Rail’s incorporation. Politics aside, the report captures the change, frustration, and uncertainty that characterized Canada’s passenger rail service in the late 1970s and beyond.