Calgary & Southern Alberta

Canadian Pacific Railway Workers
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

Poor working conditions in early southern Alberta and Calgary fostered unrest and solidarity among the working class. The Canadian Pacific Railway's (CPR) arrival in Calgary and southern Alberta heralded the birth of the region’s labour movement. While only 212 men and three women engaged in industrial labour in 1884-1885, the railway required coal and new settlers needed homes, implements and food. CPR workers, largely from the United States, eastern Canada, and abroad, suffered poor conditions and low pay. On the Prairies they were at the mercy of subcontractors or indentured to the company. The Master and Servants Act declared that it was a crime for individuals to desert their employers and the North-West Mounted Police enforced the Act. 

Coal Mining Conditions
Courtesy of the Galt Museum

When the CPR built a branch line from Calgary to Lethbridge in 1885, the company gained access to the coal fields in the area and ownership of major mines. In 1897, the Company's influence extended to the Crow's Nest Pass region when a branch line reached Nelson, British Columbia, from Lethbridge. Consisting of 4,500 workers, largely French-Canadian and unfamiliar with English, the Crow's Nest Pass line was characterised by brutal conditions. In most cases, employees paid for their own rail fares and blankets, and contractors often abandoned the labour camps without paying them. The CPR housed workers in unheated tents in winter and paid them $1.50 to $1.75 per day. It was estimated that after working on CPR lines for nine months, the average worker could owe $25.00.

Frank, Alberta, a coal mining town that was buried when Turtle Mountain crashed down in 1903. One of a series of coal mining disasters.
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

Harsh working conditions also characterised Alberta's coal mines. Coal dust and gas made the mines dangerous and frequent explosions caused many deaths. At Bellevue an explosion caused by company negligence killed thirty-one men in 1910. Four years later, an explosion at the Hillcrest mine claimed 189 lives. Nearly sixty per cent of all labour strikes in Alberta from 1900 to the 1950s occurred in coal mining towns.