The community of Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada has two railway stations, both of which are currently in use by Via Rail.

In December 2005, CN and CP implemented a plan to reduce train congestion on their parallel lines in central Ontario through the Parry Sound area. Consequently, westbound trains from both railways use the CP tracks while eastbound trains use the CN tracks. This has resulted in Via Rail using the CPR station for passengers taking the westbound Canadian and using the CNR station for eastbound trains.

CNR station

The Tudor Revival Canadian National Railway station is located at 70 Church Street. It has been used as the primary stop for Via Rail's Canadian transcontinental passenger train service since the massive Via budget cuts on January 15, 1990.

The historical Station is home to the Parry Sound Area Chamber of Commerce, the MTO, the Park to Park trail association and the snowmobile district offices.

CPR station

Coordinates : 45°20′45″N 80°02′16″W

The Canadian Pacific Railway station is located at 1 Avenue Road. It was used as a stop for Via Rail's Canadian from 1978 until January 15, 1990, after which it sat vacant for a decade until being reactivated as a private art gallery named the "Parry Sound Station Gallery" in 2001. The station was reactivated following the rearrangement of track usage. The art gallery announced in fall 2007 that it would be closing due to financial problems.

Parry Sound is a town in Ontario, Canada, located on the eastern shore of the sound after which it is named. Parry Sound is located 160 km (99 mi) south of Sudbury and 225 km (140 mi) north of Toronto. It is a single tier government located in the territorial District of Parry Sound which has no second tier County, Regional or District level of government. Parry Sound is a popular cottage country region for Southern Ontario residents. It also has the world's deepest natural freshwater port.[2]

History

During the early part of the 20th century, the area was a popular subject for the many scenic art works of Tom Thomson and members of the Group of Seven. There was a slight decline in economic activity shortly after World War I with J.R. Booth's construction of a rival town, Depot Harbour on nearby Parry Island, but this setback was overcome through later developments in tourism and commerce, and the accidental destruction by fire of the entire town of Depot Harbour on August 14, 1945.

The body of water that gives the town its name was surveyed and named by Captain Henry Bayfield in the 19th century, in honour of the Arctic explorer Sir William Edward Parry. In 1857, the modern townsite was established near the Ojibwa village of Wasauksing ("shining shore") at the mouth of the Seguin River. Parry Sound was incorporated as a town in 1887. In the late 19th century, rail service was established, making the town an important depot along the rail lines to Canada.

In 1916, a cordite factory was established in the nearby town of Nobel for the Imperial Munitions Board. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, an explosives and munitions factory was also built at Nobel, making Parry Sound an important part of both the First World War and the Second World War effort.

Culture

View of downtown Parry Sound near the intersection of Seguin and James Streets. A portion of the Sound and the CP railway trestle can be seen in the distance.

Parry Sound is the birthplace of hockey legend Bobby Orr, the namesake of the local community centre and the town's own Bobby Orr Hall of Fame. In Orr's best-selling autobiography, Orr: My Story, he speaks highly of Parry Sound, the friends and family who resided there and the happy childhood he had living in that part of Canada.[3][4][5]

Canadian actor Don Harron's stage character Charlie Farquharson remains one of the town's most cherished personalities. Former Ontario premier Ernie Eves also called the town home for many years; he was the MPP for the Parry Sound—Muskoka riding from 1981 through 2001.

The town is home to several cultural festivals, including the Festival of the Sound classical music festival, an annual dragonboat race and a buskers' festival which takes place as part of the town's Canada Day festivities. The Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts serves as the principal performance venue during the Festival of the Sound, and also hosts concerts, live theatre and other cultural events throughout the year.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), also known formerly as CP Rail (reporting mark CP, SOO, MILW) between 1968 and 1996, and known as simply Canadian Pacific is a historic Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.[2]

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 20,000 kilometres (12,500 mi) of track all across Canada and into the United States,[2] stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City in the United States.

The railway was first built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but no longer reaches the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of West Canada. The CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975.[3] Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo in honor of Sir Donald A Smith (1st. Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal) who had risen from Factor to Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company over a lengthy career in the beaver fur trade. Smith was a principal financier of the C.P.R.[4] staking much of his personal wealth. In 1885, he drove the last spike to complete the transcontinental line.[4]

The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the IC&E was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. The combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis.[5]

History

Together with the Canadian Confederation, the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task originally undertaken as the National Dream by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald (1st Canadian Ministry).[6] He was helped by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, who was the owner of the North West Coal and Navigation Company. British Columbia, a four-month sea voyage away from the East Coast, had insisted upon a land transport link to the East as a condition for joining Confederation (initially requesting a wagon road).[7] The government however proposed to build a railway linking the Pacific province to the Eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 July 1871. Macdonald saw it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent. Moreover, manufacturing interests in Quebec and Ontario wanted access to raw materials and markets in West Canada.[citation needed]