 Harold Innis wrote his PhD thesis on the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) . The completion of Canada 's first <unk> railway in 1885 had been a defining moment in Canadian history . Innis 's thesis , eventually published as a book in 1923 , can be seen as an early attempt to document the railway 's significance from an economic historian 's point of view . It uses <unk> statistics to <unk> its arguments . Innis maintains that the difficult and expensive construction project was sustained by fears of American <unk> of the Canadian West . 
