Canadian Pacific’s tourist class was supposed to be a cut above third class but not quite as good as second class. Normally third class consisted of shared rooms with 8 to 12 beds. CP’s tourist-class rooms had just two to four beds. The rooms might still be shared if one person was traveling alone, but there was still more privacy and parties of two or four traveling together would not have to share with anyone else.

Click image to view and download a 14.4-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.

The cover of this booklet, which the Chung librarians date to 1929, makes “tourist third cabin” appear to be almost as good as first class. Interior photos make it clear, however, that the dining rooms and lounges are nowhere near as fancy or comfortable as first or second class. First-class lounge chairs, for example, were heavily upholstered, while tourist-class chairs were wicker. The booklet’s cover art is signed “E.B. 1927,” but I can’t find a Canadian Pacific artist with those initials.

Click image to view and download a 6.3-MB PDF of this poster from the Chung collection.

The people in this poster advertising tourist class have such creepy smiles that, based on the picture, I don’t think I would dare take that class. I suspect we are supposed to imagine they are happy they got such a good deal. According to the booklet above, round-trip tourist fares were £40 on the empresses and £38 on the mont-class and duchesses. That’s more than the round-trip rail fare from Montreal to Vancouver, though of course the ocean liner fare included meals while the rail fare did not. In today’s dollars, it more than $4,000, so tourist class wasn’t cheap.