Happy Canada Day, everyone! Hope your day is filled with all the best Canadian traditions: a couple of stubbies while grilling some back bacon, maybe a copy of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em IV playing in the background, maple syrup on everything, and socialized health insurance for when a moose breaks into the backyard party and tramples half the guests.
What a great country this is. And, hey, did you know we build cars here? Oh yeah, some of the best stuff on wheels is Canadian. We’ve had a healthy car industry for decades, everything from Model Ts built for export to the commonwealth nations, to the current contract for the Ford GT.
Read more: The must-see drives you need to take this Canada Day
So, just what qualifies as the best Canadian car of all time? We’ve got a veritable two-four of candidates, more than a century’s worth of machinery that’s infused with a little bilingualism, a little plaid-jacket, a little coureur de bois. In fact, there’s a few too many to list: in the prewar era, for instance, there were nearly thirty Canadian car companies. We’re going to have to choose a few champions in certain cases to represent a class of cars.
Here’s a list of candidates for Canada’s best ever car. Many have hit the ice, eh, but only one is worthy of the title “The Great One.”
The Honda Civic
Not only is the Honda Civic Canada’s best selling car, it’s also built in Ontario.
Handout, Honda
For: Canada’s favourite current car for coming up on two decades, the Honda Civic exemplifies the Canadian motoring ideal. Our country is vast, but we like our cars small, and efficient, and reliable. After all, breakdown on the Trans-Canada and there’s an even chance you’ll get eaten by a bear (or at least that’s what we keep telling the tourists).
The Civic isn’t just a Canadian favourite – it’s been built here for nearly 30 years as well. With a return of the hatchback Civic and maybe even the Type R, it should be a front-runner on any Canadian car list.
Don’t miss: This pristine Honda Civic is a time capsule back to the 1970s
Against: Canadians might love the Civic, but there’s not much about it that’s unique to the Maple Leaf. This is a Japanese car that just happens to appeal to our northern needs, and even if we build it here, it’s not a Canada-only proposition. The question is – is the Civic’s sheer popularity unique enough?
The McLaughlin-Buick
McLaughlin-Buick was at the forefront of Canadian automobile manufacturing back in the day. This particular one took its owner, Peter Trant of Vancouver, B.C., 33 years to restore.
Alyn Edwards, Driving
For: As mentioned, the early days of the Canadian motor industry was a golden age of custom coachwork and cottage industry. We had electric postal vans, cars like the Russell 14-28 (which could trace a lineage back to the CCM bicycle company), and if you go all the way back to 1867 and the Taylor steam buggy, Canada could even claim to have been at the absolute forefront of the automotive age. Granted, the latter didn’t have any brakes – with predictable result – but we were in the running from the very beginning (just not the stopping).
To represent these early machines, what better car than the regal McLaughlin-Buick 28-496? Everything save the engine was built in Canada, and this gorgeous cream-and-turquoise carriage would carry HRH Princes Edward and George around Canada for our country’s diamond jubilee. The McLaughlin-Buick company would eventually merge with Chevrolet to become General Motors of Canada, who still build cars like the Camaro and Impala here today.
Against: True, the McLaughlin-Buicks were at the very forefront of our nascent industry, but with powertrains sourced from south of the border, can they said to be entirely Canadian?
The Manic GT
The Manic GT was arguably the best Canadian car of all-time. And hardly anybody has ever heard of it.
Supplied, Manic
For: Several readers took umbrage when I suggested that the Manic GT was one of the best Canadian cars no one ever heard of. Well, I was probably right about the “never heard of” part. Something of a manufacturing debacle, Canada’s equivalent of the Renault Alpine is still a pretty interesting vehicle. I found an example locally with the optional Gordini tuning package and with a feather-light curb weight. Itshould actually be a real performer.
This car’s a Canadian invention, through and through. It was designed by Canadians, for Canadians and while the running gear is lifted from a Renault 8, it’s still more Quebecois than French.
Against: Regrettably, the Manic GT has several foibles, including a tendency towards rust, and a fit-and-finish level that would only be acceptable in a homesteader’s log cabin. Also, the properly-fettled cars were few and far between – most were very slow. I’d argue that the fiscal debacle that scuttled the company actually made this car even more Canadian, but it was never a success.
The Volvo 122S Canadian
Early Volvos, like the 122 Canadian, were built in Halifax.
dave_7, Flickr via Wikimedia Commons
For: Built in Halifax, early Volvos like the 122 seemed to lend credence to the idea of Candinavia. We have lots of snow and cold, the Scandinavians have lots of snow and cold – it’s basically the same thing, right? Add in how well the 122S did in rallying and road racing, and you have a real hit. It was tough, durable, and simple. We loved it.
Against: Once again, the Volvo might not have been Canadian enough in design, no matter where it was built. It was a very good car, and well-loved, but was its success really homegrown?
The Bricklin SV-1
1975 Bricklin SV-1 was quintissentially Canadian. It even had gullwing doors!
Graeme Fletcher, Driving
For: The safety car! Well, if Canadians haven’t yet figured out how to make a car polite, we’d certainly make one safe. The made-in-the-Maritimes Bricklin SV-1 was full of clever innovations to make motoring a less hazardous affair. Plus it has cool gullwing doors – win-win!
Keep reading: Was the Canadian-made Bricklin SV-1 a failure?
Against: Bricklin’s creation was never actually sold in Canada. While examples have been imported across the line now, it wasn’t originally intended for Canadian consumers. And no cigarette lighter? In the 1970s? C’mon now, guy – how can you have a car that won’t let you burn a dart or two?
The Pontiac Beaumont Cheetah
The Pontiac Beaumont is basically Canada’s version of the Chevrolet Chevelle.
Crwpitman, Wikimedia Commons
For: Much of Canada’s early car industry was simply reworked badging for American iron, rebadged thanks to our protective tariff laws. Fargo, Mercury, Acadian – all had Yankee equivalents, but were repackaged for Canadian tastes. One of the best-known of these reheated machines was the Pontiac Beaumont, so let’s have the Beaumont carry the torch for the Frontenac, the Mercury Meteor, and the Chevy Maple Leaf truck.
But not only did Canada get our own version of the Chevrolet Chevelle, we also got a hi-po variant that could go toe-to-toe with anything the U.S. had. The Cheetah was a dealer-special similar to the Yenko cars, and came with a swapped-in 427 cubic-inch V8 making huge power. Very few were ever sold, but it’s the right pick for a car with a heart big as the Canadian Shield.
Against: As a Chevy product rebadged for the Canadian market, the Beaumont is again interesting but not entirely unique. It’s very cool, but isn’t exactly a strictly Canadian affair.
The Ford GT
The design is American, but the Ford GT is a made-in-Canada supercar.
Handout, Ford
For: When the flag drops at Le Mans next year, a couple of Canadians will be taking to the field. Not just drivers – the cars. Even if Ford‘s mid-engined supercar was designed in America, it’ll be built in Canada. Let’s have it be our champion for current-day Canadian-built high-performance machinery like the Dodge Challenger and Charger Hellcat.
Carbon fibre specialists Multimatic have the contract to build Ford’s latest mid-engined exotic-killer, something that won’t surprise any insider. After all, the company already built most of the components and skeleton for the Aston Martin One-77. Still, it’s pretty cool to thing that if Ford triumphs on their return to the GTE class of Le Mans, that victory will be made in Canada.
Against: Granted, this isn’t our Avro Arrow moment – finally, we get to build the supersonic fighter the world’s been clamouring for. Unfortunately, the construction may be Canadian, but the design is all American.
