Canada received Ford Motor Company’s first automobile assembly plant outside the United States.
Ford Motor Company of Canada was incorporated in 1904, soon after Ford was established in the United States. Its early operation was based in Walkerville, Ontario, now part of Windsor, across the Detroit River from Ford’s American headquarters.
The Canadian company initially assembled Ford vehicles from imported parts and later became a major manufacturing and export operation. Its creation helped Ford expand internationally while dealing with tariffs and regional distribution costs.
Ford of Canada is sometimes confused with Ford’s later overseas plants in Britain, Argentina, or Australia. Those facilities were important parts of Ford’s global growth, but Canada was the company’s first automobile manufacturing base outside the United States.