- Canada has given the world
some truly great things: the telephone, poutine, one of
the coolest YouTube channels, just to name a few, and also the Dodge
challenger Hellcat Demon. (car zooming) That's right. Some of the most iconic
American muscle cars are actually Canadian, but Canada itself doesn't
have its own major car brand. What's up with that? It's a bit weird to me that a nation that's so clearly capable
of producing a vehicle for the mass market has no
mass market vehicle of its own. So why exactly doesn't
Canada make their own cars? We're gonna take a look at why that is, and how a secret deal
may have sealed the fate of the Canadian car's extinction. - [Man] Welcome to the
Great White North day. - Thanks again to Raycon for sponsoring this episode of Wheelhouse. You know, Jeremiah is always talking about how his Raycon Everyday
E25 earbuds helped him drift away from the stresses of daily life, so I figured I'd see what
all the fuss is about. (glass shatters)
Ah! What? (jazzy piano music) - Key Ticklin' Tony? - Afternoon, Nolan. - Where am I? - You're in a Raycon spot, Nolan. Why don't you sit down
and rest those weary bones and let the music guide
you on a spiritual journey? - How long can I stay here? - Well, Raycon's Everyday E25
earbud gives you six hours of playtime, and while they're
exquisitely comfortable, they sound just as good as
those other premium earbuds at half the price. - How does it end? - All you have to say is head on over to buyraycon.com/donut, or click the link in the description to get 15% off your order,
and hey, Nolan, guess what? - What's that, Key Ticklin' Tony? - It was me all along, Nolan, Uncle Jerry. Listen, I don't tickle
keys, but I do tickle legs. Give me those legs. Ah! (gasps) (panting) - That was weird. Canadian car brands came into
fruition in what's known as the Brass Era of the late
teens and early 1920s, when cars and trucks had all the hinges, handles, and headlamps
finished in brass trim. Canada had managed to cultivate 11 major automotive
manufacturing marques, including Brooks, Gray-Dort, McLaughlin, Chatham,
Redpath, and several others. That's right, Redpath, as in Zach Redpath. He's sitting right there off camera. Canadian auto companies
were primarily based out of Ontario, due to its
close proximity to Detroit, home of Ford, Chrysler,
and GM, AKA the Big Three. By 1923, Canada was the
second largest automaker in the world. However, the industry as a whole struggled with inefficiency. Canada also had high tariffs
on all trades to the US. When the Great Depression hit, it crippled the independent auto industry. By 1931, 75% of all Canadian
companies went belly up. Can I get an F in chat? This was the first nail in the coffin for Canada's native car industry, but the Big Three stayed in Canada, because they were already
using Canadian factories to build American models. This also gave them access
to British nations as well, because Canada was part
of the British Empire. This relationship
remained largely unchanged for the next several decades (horn blares)
with American cars being produced in Canada, and mostly being shipped (cash register dings)
back to the US for sale. Because of a lack of car sales in Canada, this caused a large deficit with the US, like 785 million bucks. Basically, Canada was paying
more money to send cars to the US than they were
making by selling cars made in Canada to Canadians, but
more money was only part of why Canada was having more problems. In 1964, Canada and the US got together to address the money
issues that had developed. What resulted was something called the Automotive Products
Trade Agreement of 1964, better known as the Auto Pact. Before the Auto Pact, post-World War II prosperity
had jump started car sales all over North America, but
Canadian manufacturing plants couldn't keep up with demand. This resulted in less business
between the US and Canada, which was bad for Canadian
makers and dealers. Solving this problem was the founding idea of the Auto Pact. The officially stated
goals of Auto Pact were to cut production costs, reduced prices on cars for Canadians, reduce the trade deficit, and create a broader automotive market. This pact specifically
said that there would be a minimum production to
sales ratio of one to one, meaning that for every
vehicle sold in Canada, a vehicle must be produced in Canada. Since there were basically
only big American car brands that still existed in Canada
when the Auto Pact was created, the cars getting produced
for the American market and the cars being sold
to the Canadian market were basically all US models, but the one sold to
Canadians were modified for the Canadian market, resulting in some interesting
Canada spec'd models based on American cars. Canada got-- Canada. Canada, huh. Canada. You say it one too many times, and it starts to lose its meaning. Canada got rides like the Acadian Canso. Acadian was a Canadian sub-brand of GM, and got sold through Pontiac dealers, and it was kind of a beast. Using the chassis from
the Chevy II platform and styling cues from Pontiac, (blender whirring)
the Acadian Canso was a bit of a parts blended special, but it worked. It kind of looks like a lightweight GTO. The top trim level came
with a 396 cubic inch V8, and a four on the floor
transmission, sounds awesome, and in 2012, one of these things sold at auction for $73,700. (cash register dings) Not bad for a cut and shut car. Chrysler did the same sort of
thing with their Dodge trucks. To get their workhorses
to the Canadian market, a sub-brand called Fargo came into play. - [Woman] Oh, you betcha, yeah. - Ford followed suit with
their F-series line of trucks, rebranding the vehicle as a Mercury, and Ford sold Mercury
badge F-series trucks to Canadians, simply
replacing the F with an M, and calling it a day. Ford did this again with
their Falcon drive Frontenac. Frontenac, I'm just gonna say it, which was basically a Ford
Falcon with a boatload (cars crash)
of maple leaves plastered all over it, and an all-new grill. Heck, even the hubcaps had maple leaves pressed straight into them. Awesome. In the first six years of the Auto Pact, Canada eliminated the entire deficit with the US auto industry. The pact was proving its worth and helping to create a more robust and lively automotive market in Canada. It actually worked. Nice.
(siren blares) Between 1966 and 1977, the
money-centric relationship between Canada and the US
ping-ponged its favor back and forth, and eventually
grew to a US surplus of just over a billion dollars. This also perpetuated the auto industry to become the number one export
industry in all of Canada, employing over 100,000
people across the country. This ingrained the Big Three into the automotive industry in Canada. This didn't have any direct benefits for creating a high-
volume Canadian car brand, but the benefits helped
so many other aspects of Canadian life, like the workforce, technology advancements,
and a booming economy, but in many ways, this
was yet another nail in the Canadian auto maker coffin. However, other nations took
notice of the Auto Pact, and started their own relationships with the Canadian workforce. Foreign manufacturers glomming on to the booming Canadian
automotive manufacturing industry wanted to get in on that sweet Tim Horton's
Wayne Gretzky coffee, which, if you didn't know, is a coffee with nine
sugars and nine creamers, because Gretzky's number is 99. It's also known as a cup of pure energy.
(wind whooshes) We should harness it to power our grid. Through the 70s, Honda, Isuzu, and Toyota gained presence in Canada. They weren't part of the Auto Pact, but this didn't stop
these Japanese companies from taking up more than
16% of the market in Canada and the United States all
on their own by the mid-80s. Canada made a separate agreement with these Japanese companies in the form of something called a
duty-remission incentive, which essentially removes
any taxes on products that were imported into the country. The side effect of this
was very interesting, and kind of weird. (horn blares)
Because Japanese automotive manufacturers set up shop in Canada, Canada was able to tie them
into the duty-free exports to the United States, so long as those Japanese
cars were Canada made. Pretty clever. Because Canada wasn't
technically violating any of the stipulations of the Auto Pact, it was allowed to continue
with their middleman status, and keep a steady flow
of foreign cars built in the Great White North
and then sold to the US. With looming renegotiations, the US had two objectives on their mind: one, eliminating duty
remissions into Canada and adopting free trade between nations. Prior to these upcoming negotiations, the pact was great for the
Canadian workforce and economy, but it was driving nail after nail into the independent
Canadian auto industry, which has pretty much become nonexistent in terms of market share. In 1989, the free trade
agreement came into effect, which got rid of any tax costs
between Canada and the US for all cars and car parts, while still maintaining
that one-to-one production to sales ratio. But because of the now
frictionless movement of product between two nations, - You know, frictionless. - it largely benefited US-based companies because of them being so much larger and having better technology
than essentially any company that had a presence in
the entire continent. This new free trade agreement
later got incorporated into NAFTA, which overruled
any preferential treatment that the Auto Pact had put in place. The Auto Pact was canceled in 2001, but it didn't matter
because trade minimums were already well above
the one-to-one minimum. US and Japanese companies
had effectively swallowed up the entire independent
Canadian automotive market, (horn blares)
and Canada had become the go-to manufacturer for a large portion of the Big Three's catalogs, as well as for Honda and Toyota. But that's not to say there
wasn't any hope for Canada to make a mainstream product
in the car world, though. Even though Canada largely caters to the big boys in the automotive realm, there are still some
smaller, and very unique, and I think pretty cool,
Canadian car companies. (funky music) Prevost is a Canadian tour
bus and motor home company, and the machines they make are
impressive, to say the least. There are literally some of
the largest vehicles allowed on the road. There's the H3-45 VIP, which is 45 feet long with 500 horsepower, making 1750 foot-pounds of torque. It's a big boy. Another cool Canadian car company is the Campagna Corporation and their T-Rex three-wheeled car. I remember seeing this thing on "Ride With Funkmaster
Flex" back in the day. Their track-ready model, called the RR, is powered by a
straight-four Kawasaki motor, making 200 horsepower, and a
six-speed sequential gearbox, and the thing only weighs 998 pounds. This thing's a beast. (dinosaur roars) Another crazy car brand out of Canada is called Conquest Vehicles, and they make something called
the Knight XV, or Knight 15. I'm gonna say XV, 'cause it
sounds more intimidating. It's an insane, bulletproof,
uber-luxurious SUV that's built to customer spec
off of the Ford F550 platform. Just look at this thing. The Ford Excursion is Bruce Banner. The Knight XV is the Hulk. My personal favorite car that's currently being produced in Canada (engine zooms)
is made by a supercar company called Felino. Their cB7 and cB7R super cars
are powered by 6.2 LS V8. Nice.
(siren blares) The cB7R is the race spec variant, and it can produce 700 horsepower. The company was started by Canadian race champion
Antoine Bessette in 2010, and they've been building
bespoke track day machines for clients since 2017. This one looks awesome. It looks like something
out of science fiction, but don't forget, though, we also have the Canadians to thank for some of our favorite cars. Literally every single Dodge Challenger and Charger is produced in Ontario. Think about that. (engine zooms)
The Dodge Demon, an 840 horsepower, all-American drag strip
monster, is Canadian. With that considered, I really wish it came with
a flannel seat option. Canada also makes the Toyota
Corolla and the Honda Civic, as well as the Toyota RAV4. We can also thank the
amazing Canadian designers and engineers that built
the all-new Ford GT. This is like America's mascot. It's a Ford distilled into a
supercar, and it's Canadian. Ultimately Canada forsake its own independent automotive
industry for the ability to provide a more robust
and fruitful workforce for the people that live and
work in Canada, and in a way, that's the most Canadian
thing I've ever heard of. What's your favorite thing from Canada? Jim Carrey is Canadian. Avril Lavigne is Canadian. JB, yeah, who could forget the Biebs? Canadian. I'm actually a quarter Canadian. My grandmother was from Edmonton, Alberta. Go Oilers! So I can say Canuck. (laughs) Be kind, see you next time. Love you, Canada. (upbeat music)
It was all over when the federal government cut the Avro Arrow program.
Some pretty dangerous misinformation there about Tims coffee.
Avoid it (and their food) at all cost if you're visiting.
Hit up Country Style instead. Their apple fritters alone are magnitudes better.
Rooting hard for Magna, Martinrea, Linamar and more to just buy some toolings and take a shot at a new Manufacturer.
With all this cars as a fashion and Identity faze going on, there more space for new car brands with a new architecture and buyers not minding over spending to buy an image.
Video killed the canada car
I Pretty sure its because they picked a fight with a Canadian goose
Because Canada wanted "mo moneh" :)