Village Squire, 1980-08, Page 17opened. The building was dismantled in 1920.
Cantin took setbacks in stride. While St. Joseph grew, he
pursued government approval for his deep -water canal scheme
that advocated only 14 locks. The plan included the canal from
Lake Huron to Lake Erie, and another twinning the Welland
Canal and canals that would bypass the 14 -foot canals already
established on the St. Lawrence. His proposal called for 35 -foot
deep canals, a minimum of 400 feet in width.
At the turn of the century, the St. Lawrence River was
non -navigable from Montreal to Lake Ontario. Canoes were
unloaded from ocean vessels in Montreal Harbour and placed on
canal boats that travelled to Lake Ontario ports, then the cargoes
were loaded onto Great Lakes carriers.
DEEP WATER SEAWAY
From 1895 until the mid-1950s, the governments of Canada
and United States studied the feasibility of a deep -water seaway.
support his proposed canals. By this time, the value of hydro
electric power was evident and Cantin was competing with
corporations that had much more capital than his company.
DOUBLE CROSSED
Ultimately Cantin contended he was double-crossed by
engineer R.O. Sweezey, a main figure in the famous
Beauharnois Scandal that rocked Canada in the 1930s and
involved several high-ranking government officials. Cantin
helped to uncover the scandal, but by then , the government had
decided the St. Lawrence Seaway should be publicly -owned, not
privately -developed.
Back in St. Joseph, construction ceased and the town
gradually disintegrated because it had no reason to become more
than a service village with a church, a school and a store. Cantin
lost his bid to play a major physical role in the development of
the Seaway, but he did not lose his vision. Until his death in St.
Cantin advertized his huge Balmoral Hotel as a luxurious summer resort.
Vacationers stayed away in droves
However. they received strong opposition from eastern railroads
in the U.S., east coast port authorities, privately -owned power
companies, several unions and other organizations. Passage of
the Wiley-Dondero Act in the U.S. in 1954 allowed American
co-operation in building the 27 foot St. Lawrence Seaway, as we
know it today. The increasing size of certain ocean vessels makes
it impossible for them to navigate the Seaway, and some groups
and individuals now feel the Seaway should have been 35 feet
wide attesting to Cantin's foresight.
From 1898 through 1913, the Great Lakes and Atlantic Canal
and Power Company Limited was incorporated with "power to
locate and construct deep canals from Lake Huron to Montreal
Harbour. Estimated cost was $500,000,000. But World War 1
intervened.
After the war, Cantin concentrated on securing power rights
on the Beauharnois Rapids above Montreal, which was the key to
the success or failure of his over-all scheme. He needed the
power rights to have a sufficient financial base on which to
Joseph in 1940, he travelled throughout North America
promoting the Waterway and his way of building it.
"To understand Cantin, we must put him in the perspective of
his time," says Joseph L. Wooden, author of A Drum to Beat
Upon, a history of St. Joseph and Narcisse Cantin.
The late 1890's to World War 1 was an enormous boom period
in Canadian history. 1,500,000 immigrants came to Canada in a
twelve year span, and from 1903 to 1913, 12,000 miles of railway
were laid. Schemes for canals, mines and development of the
west were proposed. Cantin was one of many who were planning
scheming and promoting this development boom, and he was
very much a part of the excitement and expansionary feeling of
the time.
A TRUE PROMOTER
He dealt with the industrial giants and corporate heads of
North America in cities like Montreal, Toronto, New York
Buffalo and Chicago. He was a true promoter - a charming man
with sound ideas and a knack for persuading businessmen to
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/AUGUST 1980 PG. 15