<P> The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was the ceremonial final spike driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Craigellachie, British Columbia at 9: 22 am on November 7, 1885 . It was driven in by CPR railroad financier Donald Smith, marking the end of a saga of natural disasters, financial crises, and even rebellion that plagued Canada's first transcontinental railroad from its beginning . </P> <P> The Last Spike signalled the completion of the CPR, driven through under engineer James Ross, and it remains a symbol of national unity in Canada, though due to the need to build protective snowsheds in Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse Pass in addition to the actual rails and roadbed, through trains did not run until June 1886 . At the time, the railway's completion fulfilled an 1871 commitment made by the Canadian federal government to British Columbia which stipulated that a railroad be built joining the Pacific province to Central Canada . The promise of a transcontinental railway had been a major factor in British Columbia's decision to join the Canadian Confederation . However, successive governments mismanaged the project and by the original deadline of 1881 little of the railway had been completed, resulting in threats of secession by some BC politicians . The work was then assigned to a newly incorporated CPR company, which was allowed an additional ten years to complete the line, and they did it in five . </P>

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