Leaside. Jane Pitfield
coastal passenger vessel and renamed Coquitlam. In 1950, the ship was renamed Glacier Queen and stripped, in 1970, in anticipation of becoming a floating restaurant.
The hulk sank in Cook Inlet, Alaska, on November 8, 1978, but was raised, towed to sea and scuttled in January, 1979. The ship bell from the Leaside can be found today in the library at Leaside High School.
During World War II, the Leaside Board of Education ruled that the Junior Red Cross would be the only fundraising organization permitted to function in the schools.
The first project of the schools in Leaside was to purchase a heavy-duty army truck. This was followed by the outfitting of the navy corvette, Leaside, with a piano, record player and records. The veterans at Sunny-brook Hospital were given a piano, and an iron lung and a TV set were donated to the polio ward for patients.
Each year, the Northlea Junior Red Cross Members entertained the Divadale Hospital veterans with their songs and gifts.
INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS AREAS EXPAND
ONCE THE Town was incorporated, the newly-formed Town Council, then without financial resources, acted quickly to encourage a solid industrial base to help defray costs. The industries came. The support for industrial development in Leaside is aptly described in the words of R.H. McGregor, Leaside’s member of Parliament in the Dominion Government: “…to my mind there is no place so well situated to meet the needs of industry as your municipality. You possess an abundant supply of labour of all kinds in your own and the surrounding municipalities, the best of shipping facilities and ample room for expansion. My business takes me over many parts of the Province each year and I have yet to see a place so well situated as Leaside.”1
LINCOLN ELECTRIC COMPANY OF CANADA LTD.
In mid-1914, a partnership of four with a capital investment of $1,500.00, formed a company to sell Lincoln electric motors in Canada. The four partners were: Mr. Melville Bertram, Mr. Robert Bertram, Mr. R. E. Smythies and a Mr. Milton. In 1925, the Bellwoods property (which ran north and south between Queen and Dundas, east of Shaw and west of Bathurst) was purchased for approximately $20,000.00. In 1928, the company was appointed the sole distributor in Canada for the Lincoln Electric Company, now located in Leaside. By 1930, it was incorporated federally and began the manufacturing of motors.
From 1930 to 1940, motors formed the greater part of their manufacturing, with Stator cores and rotors being purchased from the parent company in Cleveland, Ohio. Winding stators (part of electric motors) and rotors (armatures), making shafts and machining end yokes comprised the factory operations in Leaside.
The buses are lined up to take employees home from Leaside’s busy Industrial Park. Collection of Stuart Halliday.
An additional 2.5 acres of land were purchased in 1937 and four years later, in 1941, operations moved to the current Leaside Industrial Park site, the present location of the Company, approximately 400 to 500 feet east of the site of the old Canada Wire and Cable. Their new location boasted of being the first welded steel building in Canada.2 The facilities have grown from the original 30,000 sq.ft. building constructed in 1940, to the current 220,000 sq.ft. head office and manufacturing facility. Completed in 1952, this industrial site is set on 5.67 acres of land located between 163 and 179 Wicksteed Avenue. In addition, the company owns 1.14 acres of land on the north side of Wicksteed Avenue, currently used for employee parking, and leases a 50,000 sq.ft. building three blocks to the south on Esandar Drive which serves as their eastern Canada Distribution Centre.
The enlarged manufacturing area not only provides for expansion of electrode manufacturing, but also releases other space for manufacturing: d-c welding generators, both motor and gas engine driven; transformers; combination ac-dc welders and an extensive line of motors. Low-hydrogen and straight iron-powder electrodes—comparatively recent developments in welding—are now being produced.
Since 1918, Lincoln of Canada has been a pioneer in instruction courses for prospective welders, with welding schools organized right within the plant. A four-week basic arc welding course, a very special course, is offered on a regularly scheduled basis.
With more than 200 employees, the Lincoln Electric Company is well-known in academic and business communities for its profit sharing program for its employees and its incentive management programs.
Lincoln is Canada’s only manufacturer of arc welding equipment and is the largest manufacturer of arc welding consumables. The company also markets integral horsepower industrial electric motors, manufactured by the Cleveland plant. In 1993, it received ISO 9002 registration, the first welding consumable manufacturer in North America to do so.3 Today, its products are marketed not only in Canada, but also in the USA, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia. Lincoln Electric has been an active member of the Leaside Business Park and is currently expanding its ordering and shipping operations.
SANGAMO COMPANY LIMITED
This company, originally located at Laird Drive and Eglinton Avenue where Canadian Tire is currently found, began producing electric meters in 1904. Displayed above their buildings, clearly marking their presence to the public, was a large rotating oval sign. Their electric meters, designed to measure watt hours of hydro consumption, were exported to 16 countries, including Mexico, Portugal, Africa, Central America and Japan. Sangamo products were designed by Canadians, manufactured in Canada, made from Canadian materials and used by Canadians every day of the year in every province. The company had plants in Leaside and Three Rivers, Quebec, with sales offices in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Edmonton. The Leaside plant covered 180,000 square feet and had employed 825 people.4
In 1970, Prestolite acquired the Sangamo Motor Division which was located in Sarnia, Ontario. Sangalarm, a device developed by Sangamo Company Ltd. of Toronto, monitored the use of electricity and warned when the electrical load was passing a predetermined peak. The company believed the alarm would assist in more efficient energy use. It permitted users to distribute the electrical load by shifting power use to times when requirements were not so high. Some time later, Sangamo moved to Guelph, Ontario.
A Sangamo advertisement, 1958. Taken from The Leaside Story by Charles Clay.
CANADA VARNISH LIMITED
In 1924, R. E. Edwards founded the Canada Varnish Limited, a factory occupying 4.5 acres of land in Leaside on Canvarco Road. The highly skilled and trained employees worked with very specialized equipment to manufacture a diversified line of paints, enamels, varnishes and lacquers for all uses, for both amateur and professional, and for either home and industry. The varnishes were used on the gumwood of many of the Leaside homes.5
An early photograph of Canada Varnish Limited. S. Walter Stuart Library, Elmore Gray Collection.
TREMCO LIMITED
Tremco’s origins were with a young Cleveland businessman, William C. Treuhaft, who believed that a successful company is based on well-trained salesmen who understand their customers’ requirements. In working as a sales trainer, Treuhaft perfected methods and concepts to the point where he believed he could start a very successful company that would prosper in the building maintenance and construction areas. Therefore, in 1928, the company was launched—TREMCO (TRE for Treuhaft, M for manufacturing, and CO for company). Simultaneously, the company’s sales horizons were expanded into Canada.
In the mid-1930s, Tremco enlarged its Canadian interests by establishing a small plant in Leaside in 1931 and consolidating the manufacturing operations previously performed by other companies. In 1950, they moved up the street