 Copying the American financing model whilst insisting on an all-Canadian route would require the railway's backers to build hundreds of miles of track across rugged shield terrain (with little economic value) at considerable expense before they could expect to access lucrative farmland in Manitoba and the newly created Northwest Territories.Many financiers, who had expected to make a relatively quick profit, were not willing to make this sort of long-term commitment.Nevertheless, the Montreal capitalist Hugh Allan, with his syndicate Canada Pacific Railway Company, sought the potentially lucrative charter for the project.