The terms of agreement that brought Prince Edward Island into confederation in 1873 included the guarantee of “continuous communication with the railway systems of the Dominion” [
see Prince Edward Island (1873)]. The biographer of the businessman and politician George William
HOWLAN points out the practical obstacles:
“This commitment was difficult to keep, especially in wintertime, when the province was surrounded by ice. After the failure of a series of government-subsidized steamers, Islanders became convinced that the only secure link to the mainland would be a rail tunnel under the Northumberland Strait. Howlan seized on the issue and raised it in the Senate. In fact, he stood to make more than political points on a tunnel: in 1886 he formed a company to build the project in return for complete ownership of the Prince Edward Island Railway and an annual operating subsidy. His colleagues in parliament, however, were not listening, then or later.”
