1904: An International Milestone for a Major Automotive Enterprise

October 10, 1904

In another clear sign that Henry Ford’s pioneering automotive enterprise was expanding even further, the production of his cars in Canada began in the town of Walkerville in the southwestern region of the province of Ontario. This made Canada the first country outside the United States where Fords were built. (In 1935, Walkerville became part of the city of Windsor, which is on the south bank of the Detroit River and directly across from the American city of Detroit.)

This milestone was the result of Canadian businessman Gordon Morton McGregor, who had been born in Windsor in 1873, signing an agreement with Henry Ford to manufacture cars at the Walkerville Wagon Works. By the end of that inaugural calendar year, 25 cars would be produced there; a grand total of 117 rolled off that assembly line for the first fiscal year. The first type of Ford car constructed there in Walkerville was the Model C, which is pictured in the accompanying photo taken in 2019.

The wheels and bodies for all of those cars were initially built in Canada, while other parts came from Detroit. Starting in 1913, however, all of the components for Ford cars manufactured in Canada have originated in that country.

The entity known at the outset as the Walkerville Wagon Works is now called Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. This company has been headquartered in Oakville, a town in Ontario’s Greater Toronto Area, since 1953.

Photo Credit: Vauxford (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on Gordon Morton McGregor, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Morton_McGregor