As an aside, I live in Edmonton, and we see a lot of both CN and CP. CN's main east-west intercontinental runs right through the heart of the city, while CP has a line that goes straight south from Edmonton towards Calgary, where it hooks up with their mainline.
The CP yard is only about ten blocks from my house, and there is a LOT of action there on a daily basis, including the weekends. In fact I had to wait for a CP intermodal heading south towards Calgary this afternoon.
As another aside, my grandfather lives in Kenora. Nice place - not too far from the border like you said, but access to it is ONLY from the east or west - south is Lake of the Woods, which takes up an enormous amount of area.