This Wagon is just now concluding a road trip of nearly 400 miles -- away from the Railway, and through scores of villages and hamlets never reached by lecturers, and only indifferently touched by newspapers. It is returning from a trip up the entire North-East coast of Scotland .... suitable literature is continually being distributed, and a track or trail of Canadianism is made in blood red characters over that part of Scotland.

- J. Bruce Walker, Canadian Government Agent in Glasgow, June 1904.

The wagon's operation cost the Canadian government $7.50 per day, including the use of horses and their upkeep, plus the expenses of two men who traveled with the wagon. The price appeared exorbitant to officials in Ottawa, who launched an inquiry in 1905.

In 1905, moving images were a popular form of entertainment in Britain. Dramatic shots of the Canadian winter, produced by commercial movie makers, were much requested, to the consternation of Ottawa officials. Images of Canada as a land of ice and snow would hardly attract immigrants, they responded.

In the post-Sifton years the Immigration Branch refused to produce educational movies, because they regarded movies generally as a frivolous form of entertainment. Educational lantern slides were sent instead to field agents in Britain - despite protests that moving images were needed to attract audiences to their lectures. Twenty years later, immigration officials still preferred lantern slides to movies.