Hyperdrive
GM Roots Run Deep in Canada’s Fading Motor City
Oshawa mayor’s fear: “How will our citizens be able to provide for their families?”
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For generations, the face of General Motors in Oshawa, Ont., was its most prominent resident: Robert Samuel “Sam” McLaughlin. Sam and his older brother George helped build the company their father founded in 1867 into the McLaughlin Carriage Works, the largest carriage maker in the British Empire.
In 1908 it transitioned into McLaughlin Motor Car Co., using Buick engines, and General Motors bought it a decade later. Sam stayed on, serving as president of GM Canada for 27 years and chairman of the board from 1945 until his death in 1972.