Canadian Northern Railway

The Canadian Northern Railway was a Canadian transcontinental railway founded on January 13, 1899 and headquartered in Toronto, which by the time of its 1923 merger owned a main line stretching from Quebec City to Vancouver by way of Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton. Severe financial difficulties beginning around 1914 threatened its major lenders, and the federal government took control of the company in 1917, becoming its majority shareholder before the directors resigned in September 1918 and were replaced by government appointees. Its operations were folded into the Canadian National Railway name from December 20, 1918, and Parliament completed the formal merger, ending the Canadian Northern's separate corporate existence, on January 20, 1923.