History Canadian Car History

We got RHD CKD versions of the Canadian G.M.'s, right up to 1968. The Pontiacs were all Chevy running gear , 235, 283 or 327 . Both the Chevys and Pontiacs used the same type of RHD dashboard from 1961-1964 , it was a converted 1961 Pontiac dash I think.
Apparently there were no tarrifs? duties? on goods made in the British Commonwealth if they were traded a****st each other. That made direct imports from the U.S.. about twice the price of a Canadian job.

 

Info on the Canadian Mercury ,called 'Monarch' seems vague. I mean, who was the person/people that made it happen at the start & kept it going until, when was it,'61? If I'm not mistaken they were built from 1947-1961, none in 1958; is that correct? It'd be neat knowing the story behind it and the unique styling elements that went into this car.

 

Is there such a thing as a Canadian brochure showing 409 power in a "Pontiac?"

Also, I have learned the Edsel was sold in Canada however not at specific Edsel dealerships, at existing dealerships. The lower 48 could have saved lots of $ had they done the same thing!

 

On a slight sidebar, but related to the topic.
We got some of the same thing going on over here.
Except we only got them pre-War and they did'nt get re-batched.

Do to import duties of 25% and tax to get it licenced is 180%, on top of the import duty. But non on parts. ;-)

So in 1928 they started with ***embling Ford A and AA in Copenhagen. Minor differences, mostly on some parts being painted instead of chrom/stainless. So cars got way cheaper!
Then joint Chevy, Morris commercial and Dodge.

After WW2 the marked for us cars, rapidly declined. And other makes boosted there effort in the small Denmark.
Mostly tractors and truck. Up until early to mid '60, most big trucks in Denmark was asembled in Denmark, fitted with a Danish build cab. But most was shipped from US.
We got some Dodge trucks in the fiftys. The make was Dodge, but model was Fargo or Desoto. And most of them running US gas engines or UK build Diesels.
Very odd combos.

Close to non US-cars was was imported after the late-50, because be then we got tax on parts too :-(.

 

.....wow! Now theres a complete answer.

 

I agree with Rusty's comments completely. But the most pragmatic reason besides the tariffs was our population density. Having the dealerships, Ford and Mercury for example, so spread out that each had to offer as moderate and more expensive car to please their diverse customers bankrolls. Therefore the '56 Meteor/Ford with better trim (I have a '56 Rideau Victoria) was more affordable at the Mercury dealership. By the way some of our stuff was exported to Australia and the UK (the Royal family had a number of Canadian built Buicks).