Canada's Main Street

Larry Ostola speaks with Craig Baird about his new book Canada’s Main Street. Much has been written about the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first major transportation network that bound Canada coast to coast, but almost nothing about The Trans-Canada Highway, even though more people use it regularly, it’s at least as vital to the nation’s business, and its story is every bit as fascinating as the CPR’s.

Prior to the Second World War, only an adventurer would have driven cross-country on Canada’s haphazard network of highways, gravel roads, single lanes paths, open fields, and ferries. An act of Parliament in 1949 kicked off the ambitious building of a modern two-lane coast-to-coast highway. Stretching from Victoria to St. John’s and winding through the diverse cultures, landscapes, and history of all ten provinces, the Trans-Canada opened in 1960 and has been a centerpiece of the Canadian experience ever since—the route of countless road trips, holidays, migrations, and, of course, Terry Fox’s magnificent Marathon of Hope. Now, for the first time, Craig Baird, host of Canadian History Ehx, the number one history podcast in Canada, tells the epic story of the Trans-Canada from conception to completion. Canada’s Main Street is an absorbing tale of the political intrigue, budgetary disasters, and heroic innovation that created our 7000-kilometre national lifeline.

Craig Baird is the creator and host of Canadian History Ehx, a podcast that delves into Canada's history to tell the story of the good, the bad and the weird of our history. Currently the top Canadian history podcast in Canada, he can also be heard across Canada each weekend talking about Canada's history on the Corus Radio Network. If he isn't writing about Canada's history, and sharing our nation's stories online, he is visiting historical locations and traveling to second-hand book stores to build his research library. He currently lives in Edmonton.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.