As a huge and disparate country, Canada has been dependent on good transportation lines to keep its people together and to safeguard its sovereignty. Railroad construction was mentioned in the British North America Act and was on the minds of the Fathers of Confederation. Rail service developed the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Thunder Bay and Churchill, thus giving export potential to the farmers of the Prairie Provinces. The Riel Rebellion, the last serious threat to Canadian sovereignty in the West, was crushed with the aid of the Canadian Pacific, which ferried crack troops from Montreal to Regina to put an end to the revolt. Motor carriers of passengers and property made possible the development of communities not served by good rail service. Buses still serve Canadian communities and regions with no alternative service, as well as competing with trains and even planes in the urban corridors of Ontario and Quebec. Trucking companies, based on both sides of the Canadian - U.S. border, are able to use Canada's excellent highway system to bring deliveries to small and medium-size cities and towns through the Dominion. Only a few reaches of the far north are not served by all-weather highways and even there, intermodal service allows trucks and trailers to be piggybacked to these remote communities by rail. More than any other factor it has been the development of air service which has made Canada accessible to the whole world and has brought the most remote portions of the country into the Canadian community. There are no roads north of Thompson, Manitoba; there are no rails north of Churchill. But the arctic and subarctic regions are now linked with Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal and Vancouver by daily air service, and the planes are relied upon for day-to-day transportation as well as the necessities of life. As a major airfaring nation, Canada has a tremendous stake in the future of international aviation. The headquarters of both the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization (the U.N.'s specialized agency for air transportation) are located within a few blocks of each other within the city of Montreal. The mid-1970s was a turning point for the civil aviation industry in both Canada and the United States. The policy that emerged emphasized more reliance on competitive market forces and less governmental control of what was once a highly regulated industry. Both Canada and the United States began a process of "de facto deregulation" of their respective domestic airline industries which was subsequently codified by statute. Deregulation of the aviation industry had two dimensions. First, deregulation represented a new substantive policy of competition for domestic aviation. Second, deregulation was also the process of the regulatory changes and elimination of governmental controls. Canada began reform of its economic regulatory framework in 1984, culminating the passage of the new National Transportation Act, effective January 1, 1988. Canadian deregulation, usually referred to by Canadians as "economic regulatory reform", is still unfolding. The reform is intended to ensure the existence of economic and efficient carriers and at the same time provide reasonable fares and adequate service to Canadians. The U.S. deregulation experience has become a model for Canada and the rest of the free world. The model is not without flaws, including increased concentration and market power among major carriers, anticompetitive practices, bankruptcies, mergers, a gradual rise in airfares, minimal labor protection and serious safety concerns. Deregulation in the United States and Canada is similar, and yet unique
