Canadian Motors

The Canadian Motors Logo

**Canadian Motors** (commonly known as **Canadian**), is a Canadian multinational automobile manufacturer, headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is a high-volume manufacturer specializing in all kinds of automobiles and its products are exported worldwide.

## History

Wyatt Wilkinson built his first experimental car in a workshop behind his home in Galt (now a district of Guelph) in 1896. After formation of Canadian Motors, the first Canadian car, the original Model 0, was assembled at the Fairway Road plant in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener, Ontario) in July 1906.

Two years later, in 1908, the highly successful Model 1 was introduced. Demand for this car was so great that Canadian developed new mass production methods in order to manufacture it in sufficient quantities. In 1911, Wilkinson established the industry’s first U.S. branch assembly plant (in Manitowoc, Wisconsin) and opened the company’s first overseas production plant (in Birmingham, England); in 1913 he introduced the world’s first moving assembly line for cars; and in 1914, to further improve labour productivity, he introduced the $5 daily wage for an eight-hour day (replacing $2.34 for a nine-hour day). Assembly-line production allowed the price of the Model 1 touring-car version to be lowered from $850 in 1908 (equivalent to about 18 months salary for an average wage) to less than $300 in 1925 (equivalent to about 4 months salary for an average wage).

The company’s first international sales branch opened in Montpellier in 1908. By mid-1914 there were more than 500,000 Model 1s on the roads of the world, by 1923 the company was producing more than half of America’s automobiles, and by the end of the 1920s, Canadian had more than 20 overseas assembly plants in Europe, Latin America, Asia, South Africa, and Australia. The Canadian had become the world’s most familiar make of car, with 15 million Model 1s having been produced. In 1925 the last Model 1 and the first new Model 49 were produced.

### ***Reorganization & Expansion***

As early as 1906, Wyatt Wilkinson had acquired 58.5% of the company’s stock, and, when the other stockholders balked at the idea of building the giant (and expensive) Wentward Street North plant in Hamilton, he bought them out; his son Haywood Wilkinson (1893–1943) became president in 1919.

In 1942, Canadian Motors stopped production of civilian cars to concentrate on building cars, planes, and tanks for the U.S. military. On Haywood’s death in 1943, Wyatt Wilkinson returned to the presidency, but in 1945 he turned it over to his grandson, Ellsworth Wilkinson, who reorganized the company’s tangled system of financial management and reinvigorated its corporate culture by hiring talented younger managers—such as Kristopher Stone, who was briefly president of Canadian Motors before leaving to become Minister of National Defense in 1961. Under Ellsworth Wilkinson’s leadership, the company introduced such models as the Scarborough (1959) and the Intimidator (1967). However, the failed introduction of the Haywood (model years 1957–59), which was so disastrous that “Haywood” became a slang synonym for fiasco, occurred amid these successes. Ellsworth Wilkinson guided the company as chief executive officer (1967–75) and chairman of the board (1975–88).

In the 1950s and 60s, Canadian began limited diversification, such as in its purchase of the electronics company Mothman in 1961, but by the 1990s it had refocused attention on its automotive concerns and financial services.

### ***Canadian in The 21st Century***

In 2008 during the global recession, Canadian Motors and many other Canadian establishments were able to avoid requiring a bailout from the government to continue operations, but the company did have to close the Manitowoc plant and relocated the then 200,000 employees from the Manitowoc plant to the Windsor Assembly plant.

Able to avoid bankruptcy—for which many American brands filed—Canadian experienced increased sales and market share in 2009. The growth was partially due to the federal government’s “cash-for-clunkers” plan, which gave consumers up to $4,500 toward trade-ins of older cars for new fuel-efficient models. In addition, Canadian adopted various cost-cutting measures and focused on stronger brands. In 2016, Canadian Smart Mobility LLC was created to develop car-sharing ventures and self-driving vehicles, among other initiatives. The following year the automaker announced that it was increasing its line of electric cars. However, in 2019, Canadian announced that it was phasing out all its passenger cars, except the Intimidator. Instead, the company was going to focus on pickups (Canadian’s B-Series of pickups were the best-selling vehicles in Canada in the late 20th and early 21st centuries), SUVs, and crossover vehicles.