Abstract Crustal thickening in excess of 55 km, and high heat flow, suggest that a high-standing plateau region in the Cordilleran hinterland was present in the Late Cretaceous. A low strength middle crust developed beneath the plateau, and parts of this layer were exhumed to upper crustal levels in Late Cretaceous to Eocene time. During Late Cretaceous time, structures in the hinterland were reactivated. Strata, buried to mid-crustal depths since the Jurassic, began to flow upward to higher levels; earlier structures were refolded and tightened, and a new transposition fabric developed. Some 10–20 km of the middle crust was involved in high temperature ductile flow. The lower boundary of the ductile zone lies with thrust sense on top of Precambrian rocks of Canadian Shield affinity, and splays upwards to the NE where it closely coincides with highly strained rocks in the hanging wall of the Purcell Thrust Fault. The upper boundary is marked by a normal-sense high strain zone, above which only minor Cretaceous deformation occurred. The boundaries were reactivated at upper crustal levels after cessation of flow in the mid-crustal channel. This reactivation resulted in formation of ductile to brittle extension faults such as the Okanagan Fault System. During final stages of flow, the Precambrian basement gneisses at the base of the channel became domed and exhumed to upper crustal levels. Comparisons with Himalayan tectonics are clearly drawn, but there are significant contrasts such as the long residence time of the proposed Cordilleran channel, and the nature of the channel boundaries.