Samuel McLaughlin

Who was Samuel McLaughlin?

Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC, ED, CD was an influential Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada.

Born near Bowmanville in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario, the son of Robert McLaughlin, he started working in 1887 for his father's company, McLaughlin Carriage Works, at one time the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn buggies and sleighs in the British Empire. With engines from William C. Durant of Buick he produced the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, establishing The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, incorporated on November 20, 1907. In 1908, its first full year of operation, it produced 154 cars. In 1910 he became a director of General Motors and sold his Chevrolet company stocks in 1918 becoming president of General Motors of Canada, which continued to sell cars under the McLaughlin-Buick brand until 1942. He retired in 1945, but remained chairman of the board until his death.