In the late 1800's and early 1900's a series of great hotels were built across Canada to help settle the vast, empty country, and to use the spectacular scenery to draw tourists to the rail lines.
Starting with the Hotel Vancouver and Banff Springs in 1888 (both built by the Canadian Pacific Railway), and culminating with the Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal in 1958 (Canadian national Railway), these hotels are some of the finest, most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world. Most are now owned by Fairmont hotels, some (like the Prince of Wales in Waterton National Park, Alberta) are independant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%...railway_hotels
here are some pictures of a few of them.
The most famous. The Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta
http://luxuryhorizons.files.wordpres..._springs_1.jpg
The Empress Hotel. Victoria, British Columbia
http://www.jimbrickmancruise.com/por...pressHotel.jpg
Chateau Frontenac. Quebec City, Quebec
http://ventonlife.files.wordpress.co..._frontenac.jpg
Royal York Hotel. Toronto, Ontario
http://www.daveandcharlotte.com/wp-c...39-56copy1.jpg
Chateau Laurier. Ottawa, Ontario
http://www.traceyfoster.com/gallery/...au_Laurier.JPG
Prince of Wales hotel. Waterton lakes national Park, Alberta.
This Hotel was built by the American, Great northern Railway, not a Canadian railway.
http://photos.igougo.com/images/p895...ales_Hotel.jpg
The Local example, in my hometown.
The Palliser Hotel. Calgary, Alberta.
http://images.channels.nl/images/hot...28/1288741.jpg
There are more that can be found in the linked Wikipedia article. All images found via google, link to the image is provided below each.
Please post any pictures of yours of these great buildings. Cheers.