Newly published article about Canadian National’s privatization of Canada’s rail network, written by Maddock Thomas, researcher for Public Rail Now. It has been 30 years since Canadian National was privatized, and Wall Street continues to profit at Canada’s expense. “For nearly a century, Canadian National (CN) was a publicly owned crown corporation, providing all corners of Canada with rail service. That changed in 1995, when the federal government privatized CN via an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock. In 2025, CN commemorated 30 years as a private corporation. Along with Canadian Pacific (CP), CN is one of Canada’s two Class I railroads (defined by earning more than $1 billion in annual revenue, as of 2026). As the larger of the two, owning an outright majority of the nation’s rail network, CN has an outsized impact on the Canadian economy. Yet despite its stranglehold on the nation’s critical transportation infrastructure, CN’s private ownership has gone largely unquestioned since privatization. “ For more information about our campaign for Public Ownership of the rails in North America and how to get involved, please visit publicrailnow.org to read the first report written by Mr. Thomas “Putting America Back on Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System” |