https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/bcs-overdue-apology-to-chinese-canadians/article18734391/?arc404=true

MacDonald was quite a cynical politician. Working to bring in about 17,000 Chinese workers to build the CPR, then adopting head taxes and other measures to exclude Asian Immigration when they were no longer needed by the people bribing federal politicians to build a railway at public expense. First MadDonald betrayed the Victoria BC voters who elected him in a by election expecting him to support bring in UK workers and paying them a living wage to build the CPR, then he betrayed the desperate Chinese workers brought in to build the CPR.