Making Cars In Canada

Canadians fell in love with the car at first glance. They were scared by it too, and by its potential. Canada was quick to become a car nation, as the automobile was enthusiastically adopted by Prairie grain farmers, the new modern woman, travellers to the north, and rough-and-tumble adventurers looking for a thrill by traversing the immense length of the country. The automobile was the symbol of the modern Canada of the twentieth century, and the final victory of technology over landscape. Canadians were building cars from the beginning. Independent firms and branches of the big American manufacturers vied for the lucrative Canadian market. Automaking has been an integral part of Canada's economy since the car's introduction. For more than a century, Canadians have lived with this automobile revolution, and all the consequences and permutations that it represents. Blending social, cultural and economic history, Dimitry Anastakis's engaging text tells the fascinating story of the car across Canada from earliest days, when cars and horses jockeyed for parking space, to the multilane freeways of the twenty-first century.

Analyzes the performance of the industry after the North American Free-Trade Agreement took effect, in each of the three countries and on the continent as a whole. Also looks at the impact of environmental regulations. The studies were funded by automobile companies and reviewed by personnel representing them. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Autonomous State provides the first detailed examination of the Canadian auto industry, the country’s most important economic sector, in the post-war period. In this engrossing book, Dimitry Anastakis chronicles the industry’s evolution from the 1973 OPEC embargo to the 1989 Canada–US Free Trade Agreement and looks at its effects on public policy, diplomacy, business enterprise, workers, consumers, and firms. Using an immense array of archival sources, and interviews with some of the key actors in the events, Anastakis examines a fascinating array of topics in recent auto industry and Canadian business and economic history: the impact of new safety, emissions, and fuel economy regulations on the Canadian sector and consumers, the first Chrysler bailout of 1980, the curious life and death of the 1965 Canada-US auto pact, the ‘invasion’ of Japanese imports and transplant operations, and the end of aggressive auto policy-making with the coming of free trade. More than just an examination of the auto industry, the book provides a rethinking of Canada’s tumultuous post-OPEC political and economic evolution, helping to explain the current tribulations of the global auto sector and Canada’s place within it.

In British Columbia by the Road, Ben Bradley takes readers on an unprecedented journey through the history of roads, highways, and motoring in British Columbia's Interior, a remote landscape composed of plateaus and interlocking valleys, soaring mountains and treacherous passes. Challenging the idea that the automobile offered travelers the freedom of the road and a view of unadulterated nature, Bradley shows that boosters, businessmen, conservationists, and public servants manipulated what drivers and passengers could and should view from the comfort of their vehicles. Although cars and roads promised freedom, they offered drivers a curated view of the landscape that shaped the province's image in the eyes of residents and visitors alike.