The story
Founded by General Motors in 1918.1
GM Canada has historically been one of the largest and most powerful corporations in Canada, being listed as the third "largest" in 1975, and being comparable to several publicly traded companies such as BCE, George Weston Limited, and Royal Bank of Canada.
McLaughlin and Buick
In 1907, the "McLaughlin Motor Car Company" was founded in Ontario by Samuel McLaughlin. The first year saw the sale of 154 McLaughlin cars.
McLaughlin and William C. Durant, respectively the biggest carriage builders in Canada and the United States, contracted for Durant's Buick to supply McLaughlin with power trains for 15 years. McLaughlin fitted the power trains to running gear, bodies, and chassis built by McLaughlin in Canada. The cars were branded McLaughlin until the end of the contract, thereafter branded McLaughlin-Buick between 1923 and 1942.
In 1908, Durant and McLaughlin started General Motors Holding Company after Durant exchanged $500,000 of Buick stock for $500,000 of McLaughlin Motor Co. stock. McLaughlin also exchanged his Buick stock for General Motors stock, and in 1910 was invited to be on the board of General Motors in Detroit.
Chevrolet
In 1915, Sam McLaughlin acquired the Chevrolet Car Company of Canada, which built Chevrolets in Oshawa with Chevrolet motors and McLaughlin bodies. In 1918, he merged his company with Chevrolet Canada under the name "General Motors of Canada Limited". McLaughlin was retained as president of the company, before becoming director and vice president of General Motors on the approval of Durant, who was then president of General Motors and owner of the Chevrolet Motor Co. The corporation moved people in 1918 after McLaughlin allied his company with the corporation unknown to Robert McLaughlin. The McLaughlins were given GM stocks for the propriertorship of the Canadian Company and $10,000,000 to build Walkerville and Canadian Products, but not ownership.
Between 1923 and 1942, McLaughlin's cars were branded McLaughlin-Buick. In 1942, when the production of automobiles was suspended for the Second Great War, the last McLaughlin-Buick was built. When production resumed, they were just "Buick".
1980s–present
General Motors of Canada opened its new head office building on the shore of Lake Ontario in 1989. The building is a fixture on Highway 401 and usually displays an enormous picture of a new vehicle on its huge glass atrium. This is a rented structure of General Motors Corporation and today is called General Motors. General Motors of Canada built their first offices on Richmond street in Oshawa and had large General Motors of Canada signage from 1919. The McLaughlin plants were there and were resigned by the McLaughlin Family.
GM's Canadian Technical Centre opened in June 2001. It is primarily responsible for managing the design and validation of vehicles that are manufactured in Canada, though it supports many joint development efforts with GM operations in other countries.
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The manufacturing plants located in Oshawa produced the Chevrolet from 1915, and today the Camaro and included the Chevrolet Truck Company of Canada 1919. Cadillac and LaSalle were built here too. The Oshawa plants have regularly garnered top quality ratings by J.D. Power. The Oshawa facility was ranked number 1 facility in overall quality in North and South America by J. D. Power. The Truck Plant was closed to give industry to Mexico, and reopen old Saturn Plants.
General Motors of Canada announced a naming rights deal for the General Motors Centre in Oshawa on October 5, 2006. The centre's main tenants are the Oshawa Generals junior hockey team, who were named for the company in 1937.
On April 27, 2009, GM Canada announced that it would cut over half of its Canadian jobs and close 40% of its Canadian dealerships by 2014 in response to its parent company's dire financial straits. Reducing its franchises in Canada from approximately 709 dealerships to about 470 across the country, after General Motors (US) bankruptcy. The Canadian Government sold its 12% of General Motors stock, purchased in 2009, in early 2015.
In 2021, GM announced that it will be converting its CAMI Assembly plant into a large-scale commercial electric vehicle manufacturing plant to build the BrightDrop EV600, beginning in April 2022.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, GM Canada committed to the Government of Canada the production of 10 million face masks at cost for the Public Health Agency of Canada. Beginning production on May 26, 2020, at its Oshawa facility, GM Canada fulfilled its commitment on April 8, 2021.
2008 Canadian Auto Workers bargaining
General Motors and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining contract on May 15, 2008, a full four months before the existing contract was due to expire. As part of the agreement, GM pledged to maintain production at the Oshawa, Ontario pickup truck plant and made other production commitments.
On June 3, 2008, less than three weeks after ratification of the new contract, GM announced that, due to soaring gasoline prices and plummeting truck sales, it would close four additional truck and SUV plants, including the Oshawa pickup plant.
In response, the CAW organized a blockade of the GM of Canada headquarters in Oshawa. The blockade was ended by an Ontario Superior Court order, after 12 days. Further discussions between GM and the CAW resulted in an agreement to compensate workers at the truck plant and additional product commitments for the Oshawa car assembly plant.
2009 Government Bailout
In June 2009, the federal and Ontario governments rescued General Motors with a $10.8 billion bailout. By 2015, the governments sold their investments in GM and recovered most of that money, but still lost billions in the process. As of late 2018, the federal government still held a $1B+ GM loan administered by Export Development Canada without accurate accounting of the losses, and acccording to Export Development Canada's website, the GM loan is still on the books as of 2026.
From Wikipedia’s article on General Motors Canada, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5