 Innis argues that " the history of the Canadian Pacific Railroad is primarily the history of the spread of Western civilization over the northern half of the North American continent " . As Robert Babe notes , the railway brought <unk> , transporting coal and building supplies to manufacturing sites . It was also a kind of communications medium that contributed to the spread of European civilization . Babe writes that , for Innis , the CPR 's equipment " comprised a massive , energy @-@ consuming , fast @-@ moving , powerful , capital @-@ intensive ' sign ' dropped into the very midst of indigenous peoples , whose entire way of life was disrupted , and eventually shattered as a result . 
