Red, white, and blue are the colors of the American flag. But they were also the colors of the Canadian flag, which incorporated the British union jack, before 1965. For those Canadians who felt they owed more allegiance to France than to England, they are also the colors of the French flag.
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Click image to download a 351-KB PDF of this menu.
About the time these menus were issued, CN also adopted a “red, white and blue” fare plan, an early form of what the airlines call yield management today, in order to entice travelers back to the trains. I suspect that is what the colors of these menus are referring to. Unfortunately, the 45-degree angle makes me think more of a barber shop than a restaurant.
Click image to download a 379-KB PDF of this menu.
Under this fare plan, the highest (blue) rates were charged on Fridays, Sundays, and holidays during the summer season and holidays only during the winter season. Medium (white) rates were charged on Mondays through Thursdays and Saturdays during the summer season and Fridays and Sundays during the off season. The lowest (red) fares were charged on Mondays through Thursdays and Saturdays on the off season.
Click image to download a 386-KB PDF of this menu.
For short trips the white fares were as much as 25 percent off the blue fares, but for longer trips they might be only 12 percent off. This fare system might help alleviate overcrowding but I doubt that it got anyone to return to the rails.
Anyone who was attracted back to the trains by the fare plan certainly wouldn’t return if they were relying on the dining cars to sustain them during their trip. These menus have pretty limited selections: just one entrée for breakfast and three for lunch and for dinner. They remind me of Amtrak’s menus today, which suggests that CN was also responding to declining ridership by cutting its food service budgets.