From Independence to Integration: The Corporate Evolution of the Ford Motor Company of Canada, 1904–2004

Abstract

In the century since its founding, the Ford Motor Company of Canada has evolved from a relatively independent entity within the Ford empire, with a strong element of minority ownership and its own overseas subsidiaries, to a fully integrated and wholly owned part of Ford's North American operations. The unique emergence and transformation of Ford-Canada among Ford's foreign enterprises is explained by Canada's changing automotive trade policies, the personal relations of the Ford family with its Canadian offspring, and a corporate strategy pursued by Henry Ford's successors and the American Ford company, which sought to bring Ford-Canada more directly under Detroit's control.