Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited, with headquarters in Oakville, Ontario, is the longest-established automobile company in Canada, producing a full line of quality cars and trucks.

Ford Motor Company was started in Detroit, Michigan, in 1903. A year later, in 1904, the Canadian automobile industry was established by a group of young Canadian entrepreneurs who founded Ford of Canada in what is now Windsor, Ontario. Gordon McGregor, the 31-year-old general manager, had just 17 employees in that first year.
 

Ford of Canada is investing more than $3 billion at its plants in Oakville and Windsor, Ont.  This is an aerial view of its plants in Oakville, with a new paint facility in the foreground.

The company is still a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, although its shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Ford of Canada is a Canadian public corporation. Wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ford of Canada include operations in Australia and New Zealand.

Ford is in the process of investing more than two billion dollars in Canada by 1995. More than one billion dollars was spent at the Oakville Assembly plant in Ontario to re-tool and re-equip the plant as the sole source for a new multi-purpose mini-van, the Windstar, which competes in the fastest-growing segment of the North American automobile market. An additional $400 million will be spent to expand the Ontario Truck Plant in Oakville by 44 percent.

In addition, in Windsor, Ontario, Ford is spending an additional one billion dollars to rebuild and equip Windsor Engine Plant Two, closed in December, 1990, to produce a new family of truck engines beginning in 1995. These investments, the largest in Ford of Canada’s 90-year history, are providing Ford with the technologically-advanced, world-mandate products that will strengthen Ford of Canada’s competitive position through the 1990s and into the next century.
 

The 1995 Windstar	The 1994 Ford Mustang

As a result of such a vote of confidence in the Canadian work force, Ford of Canada believes it can provide stability of employment at its Canadian plants, even at a time when the global automobile industry is undergoing major restructuring.

Ford of Canada employs over 13,000 people. The company has its national parts distribution centre in Brampton, Ontario, with five other distribution centres and six regional sales offices across the country. There are 650 automotive dealers in Canada who sell Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars and Ford trucks.

Ford assembles cars and trucks at two plants in Oakville and one in St. Thomas, Ontario. The Oakville Assembly Plant produces the new Windstar minivan; the Ontario Truck Plant, also in Oakville, builds F-series pickups — the most popular vehicle, car or truck in North America. Another car plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, produces the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis — voted the “Best Vehicle Built in Canada” in 1992.
 

The Ford Ecostar Electric Vehicle

In Windsor, Ontario, Ford produces engines at the Essex Engine plant, aluminum engine parts at the Essex Aluminum plant and Windsor Aluminum Plant and iron castings at the Windsor Casting plant.

Affiliated Canadian companies of Ford of Canada include: Ensite Limited, which is a partner with the company in the Essex plants and operates an engine plant in Windsor producing engines and engine parts; Ford Credit Canada Limited which provides retail and wholesale financing to Ford automotive dealers; Ford Electronics Manufacturing Corporation which produces automotive electric components in Markham, Ontario.

Ford of Canada believes its commitment to Canada and Canadians extends beyond economics or products. In Canada and the United States, Ford has conducted research on alternative fuel vehicles for more than 20 years and is now the recognized leader in testing those vehicles on roads throughout North America. Ford’s alternative-fuel research effort has included methanol, ethanol, compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and electric vehicles.

Alternative fuels are fuels other than conventional gasoline and diesel fuel. Different approaches include the replacement of a significant portion or all of the conventional fuel used by a vehicle with gaseous fuels, electricity, or some other liquid such as alcohol (e.g. methanol or ethanol).

Ingenuity, entrepreneurship, enthusiasm and plain hard work, the blend of human traits upon which the company was founded, are as evident at Ford of Canada today as they were in 1904, when those seventeen employees in Windsor set out to build a better motorcar and, in the process, changed the world. Their resourcefulness lives on today in a company whose goal is stated in simple terms: To be a low-cost producer of the highest-quality products and services that offer the customers the best value.

Ford of Canada believes the future holds great promise for the company and for Canada as well. Ford Canada’s mission is to better meet the needs of the customers by continually improving products and services. Ford believes that these values have been and will continue to be instrumental in achieving corporate success. The people and the quality of the products are first priorities at Ford, and customers are the main focus.