The Life and Work of Sir William Van Horne

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG (February 3, 1843 – September 11, 1915) is most famous for overseeing the construction of the first Canadian transcontinental railway, a project that was completed in 1885, in under half the projected time. He succeeded Lord Mount Stephen as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1888. He was responsible for launching the sea transport division of the CPR, which inaugurated regular service between Vancouver and Hong Kong in 1891. He also presided over the expansion of the CPR into the luxury hotel business in the 1890s. He was also a prominent member of the syndicate that created the Cuba Railroad Company in 1900. He lived at the Van Horne Mansion in Montreal's Golden Square Mile.

“Van Horne once protested against “unauthorized” biographies because they “suggest that they have been cooked, pruned, and glossed over to suit somebody, and therefore lose their value.” In his opinion a biography should be “frank, square-toed, and pungent.” Again, he exhorted a biographer of his friend Lord Strathcona to make his book “a real one—a strong, fearless, flatfooted, straightforward work.” This life of himself has, at any rate, been written with fearlessness and sincerity.”-Preface