The centrepiece of the Canadian government's regulatory strategy from 1904 onwards, the Board of Railway Commissioners is also central to Cruikshank's study. He describes the origins of this independent regulatory agency -- the forerunner of the National Transportation Agency -- and examines its efforts to resolve complex freight disputes. Cruikshank shows how freight rate controversies generated a variety of regulatory initiatives: governments attempted to stimulate competition in the railway industry, entered into contracts such as the Crow's Nest Pass Agreement, and fixed tariffs in legislation such as the Maritime Freight Rate Act. He demonstrates, however, that the new initiatives did not necessarily displace older ones but instead created a plurality of regulatory instruments which governed the Canadian freight rate structure. The regulatory pluralism established during this period has endured through much of the twentieth century.

Ken Cruikshank, professor of history and former dean of Humanities at McMaster, works on the history of business and of the administrative state in Canada and the United States, particularly between the 1880s and World War II. He is the author of Close Ties: Railways, Government and the Board of Railway Commissioners, 1851–1933.

As long-time research collaborators, Ken and Nancy have focused on the state, the environment and recreation in the history of Hamilton Harbour. In 2016 UBC Press published their The People and the Bay: A Social and Environmental History of Hamilton Harbour, which won the Canadian Historical Association’s 2017 Clio Prize for Ontario regional history.

Ken Cruikshank's profile page

"This is one of the first scholarly historical studies to focus so clearly on the limits of regulation. [It] has a well defined focus, and the key primary sources have been examined thoroughly and used effectively. Deregulation has become an important agenda item for Tory politicians. This work is of great importance in [its questioning of the current mixed system of regulation]." T.D. Regehr, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan. "A very comprehensive analysis ... demonstrating substantial scholarship. The historic perspective gives a new dimension to railway regulation ... The sources, primary and secondary, are as complete as I have ever seen ... [and] the detailed consideration of Regulatory Pluralism is a new concept." W.G. Scott, Department of Continuing Education (Transportation Economics), McGill University.

"This is one of the first scholarly historical studies to focus so clearly on the limits of regulation. [It] has a well defined focus, and the key primary sources have been examined thoroughly and used effectively. Deregulation has become an important agenda item for Tory politicians. This work is of great importance in [its questioning of the current mixed system of regulation]." T.D. Regehr, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan.
"A very comprehensive analysis ... demonstrating substantial scholarship. The historic perspective gives a new dimension to railway regulation ... The sources, primary and secondary, are as complete as I have ever seen ... [and] the detailed consideration of Regulatory Pluralism is a new concept." W.G. Scott, Department of Continuing Education (Transportation Economics), McGill University.