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The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Scandal was a political scandal in Alberta, Canada in 1910, which forced the resignation of the Liberal provincial government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford. Rutherford and his government were accused of giving loan guarantees to private interests for the construction of the Alberta and Great Waterways (A&GW) Railway that substantially exceeded the actual cost of construction, and which paid interest considerably above the market rate. They were also accused of exercising insufficient oversight over the railway's operations. The scandal split the Liberal Party: Rutherford's Minister of Public Works, William Henry Cushing, resigned from his government and publicly attacked its railway policy, and a large portion of the Liberal caucus voted to defeat the government in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Although the government survived all of these votes, and Rutherford largely placated the legislature by appointing a royal commission to investigate the affair, pressure from Lieutenant-Governor George Bulyea forced Rutherford's resignation and his replacement by Arthur Sifton. The royal commission reported months after Rutherford had already resigned. The majority did not find Rutherford or his cabinet guilty of any wrongdoing, but criticized them for poor judgment, both in relation to the loan guarantees and in relation to the exemptions the A&GW received from provincial legislation; a minority report was more sympathetic, and declared the allegations against them "disproved". James Cornwall, a Liberal backbencher who supported Rutherford, fared somewhat worse: his personal financial involvement in the railway gave rise to "suspicious circumstances", but he too was not proven guilty of any wrongdoing. Besides provoking Rutherford's resignation, the scandal opened rifts in the Liberal Party that took years to heal. Sifton eventually smoothed over most of these divisions, but was frustrated in his railway policy by legal defeats. He ultimately adopted a similar policy to Rutherford's, and the A&GW was eventually built by private interests using the money raised from provincial loan guarantees. The Liberals went on to be re-elected in 1913 and 1917. ==Background== Alberta's first years as a province were optimistic ones, and one way that this optimism manifested itself was in a desire for railroads. The public, media, and politicians all called for the rapid development of new lines and expansion of existing ones.〔Thomas 59〕 Rutherford's Liberals had set up a framework that allowed almost anybody to enter the railroad business, but few firms had done so by 1909.〔Thomas 58–59〕 The opposition Conservatives called for the government's direct entry into the industry.〔Thomas 60〕 Rutherford's government instead opted for a regime of loan guarantees: the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) had their bonds, which were to pay 4% per year over their thirty-year term, guaranteed at a rate of $13,000 per mile of railway constructed. The legislature had the right to increase this to $15,000. In exchange, the railways were subject to a minimum rate of line construction: the CNR was required to build and the Grand Trunk Railway before the end of 1909.〔 Besides the established companies, guarantees were also offered to new companies.〔 One company to take advantage of this was the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway, which was founded by two Kansas City bankers, William R. Clarke and Bertrand R. Clarke, and a Winnipeg accountant, William Bain. The company proposed to build a "line from Edmonton north-easterly to a point at or near the west end of Lac la Biche, thence to a point at or near Fort McMurray."〔Thomas 61〕 Guarantees to the so-called "A&GW" were more generous than to the established companies: $20,000 per mile for and $400,000 for its Edmonton terminal. The bonds also paid better interest (5%) over a longer term (fifty years) than those of the established companies. Upon the bonds' sale, the money was to be placed in a bank account controlled by the government, and paid to the railway as the line was constructed.〔Thomas 62〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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