With the admission of British Columbia to Confederation, the dream of Cartier and of Macdonald, of a united Canada extending from ocean to ocean, was realized. But one thing more was required to bind the scattered provinces firmly together-a great transcontinental railway. Cartier was one of the strongest advocates of such an undertaking, and to him belongs the glory of having had passed the first charter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. One of the terms of the union of British Columbia with Canada under the Act presented by Cartier, was the construction of such a road. It is related that the delegates of British Columbia during the negotiations urged upon Cartier that a railway should be built across the Prairies to the foot of the Rockies, and that a colonization road should be laid out from the foot of the Rockies to the Coast. "No," replied Cartier, "that will not do; ask for a railway the whole way and you will get it." Some leading public men of the time thought that Cartier was willing to undertake too great an obligation, but events have more than justified his optimism. At the session of 1872, Cartier presented resolutions providing for the construction of the Canadian Pacific. After a remarkable debate, a bill based on the resolutions was adopted, and Cartier, springing to his feet, gave utterance amidst loud cheers to the expression which has become historic: "All aboard for the West." It was the last great triumph of his public career. He did not live to see the realization of his dream, for it was not until thirteen years afterwards, that is to say, on November 7th, 1885, that the last spike of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven by Sir Donald Smith, now Lord Strathcona, at Craigellachie, a small village of British Columbia, and on July 24th, 1886, Cartier's great colleague and fellow-worker for a united Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald personally reached the Pacific by rail from Ottawa. Though Cartier did not live to see the completion of the gigantic undertaking which meant so much for Canada, it is one of his chief merits that he was one of its initiators and strongest supporters, and that he foresaw and foretold its great future. "Before very long", he declared, addressing Parliament, "the English traveller who lands at Halifax will be able in five or six days to cover half of the continent inhabited by British subjects."