Harold Innis wrote his PhD thesis on the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) . The completion of Canada 's first transcontinental 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 voluminous statistics to underpin its arguments . Innis maintains that the difficult and expensive construction project was sustained by fears of American annexation of the Canadian West .