In 1933, when the Dominion Motors Company (formerly Durant) ceased manufacturing cars and were selling their buildings and land, Canada Wire and Cable purchased 4.86 acres. The remaining 9.46 acres were sold to Frigidaire Canada Limited (a division of General Motors Corporation) the manufacturers of refrigerators and other appliances. The company moved into the Durant buildings on Commercial Road. Frigidaire remained in Leaside until 1958 when they decided to relocate and offered these buildings to Canada Wire and Cable at a favourable price.
Durant Motors had built an office building in 1928 across the street on the west side of Laird. When they stopped manufacturing cars, they offered it to Canada Wire and Cable for $75,000.00, but Canada Wire management “could not justify such an expenditure for pen pushers, preferring to spend their money for something materially more productive.”6
In 1911, the Standard Underground Cable Company of Pittsburgh had established its Canadian subsidiary in Hamilton. By 1927, the stock of the Canadian operation was acquired by Nesbitt Thomson and, two years later, Standard Underground amalgamated with Canada Wire and Cable. The Hamilton plant continued operations until 1934 when the equipment was moved to Leaside and, by 1935, the company had moved into the Durant buildings on the east side of Laird.
As Canada Wire and Cable’s sales and profits increased, new equipment was purchased. A new transformer station was installed in response to the need for greater power. During the Second World War, Canada Wire and Cable supplied aircraft wires, navy cables, degausser cable (for demagnetizing ships) and field telephone wires. As well, antisubmarine nets to protect coastal harbours were manufactured. Although over three hundred employees out of 1,200 personnel enlisted in the Armed Services, the company continued its regular business as well as responding to the war effort. At this time many women entered the workforce.
The remaining years of the 1930s saw a marked recovery in the general economy from the Depression years. By 1940, the company was returned to a state of momentum reminiscent of the late twenties.
With the end of the war in 1945, there was a demand for wire and cable in the building of houses. This boom led to the employment of 2,100 people, almost double their previous number. As a result the Leaside plant was rehabilitated, creating greater efficiency, increased production and improved working conditions.
However, in December of that year, a vote of all qualified hourly-paid employees was held at Leaside for the selection of a collective bargaining agent. As a result, Local 514 was certified and negotiations began. The year 1946 saw a breakdown in negotiations for the first agreement. A strike occurred from July until October 1946, leading to 110 production days being lost to the Leaside plant. Immeasurable sales and earnings were lost.
By 1951, a Wire Drawing Department building was erected on the northeast section of the holdings of CWC that faced Wicksteed Avenue. Expansion was in the air. In 1958, with the acquisition of 9.46 acres of property from Frigidaire, Canada Wire and Cable now owned twenty-five acres in the vicinity of Laird and Eglinton.
The vulcanizing extruder as it looked in 1998, amid the debris of demolition. Leaside Advertiser.
In 1959, the vertical continuous vulcanizing extruder which allowed the rubber around the cable to mold evenly as it was vertically dropped, was installed to improve the quality of large size thermosetting insulated cables. This extruder is still standing on the site although everything else was demolished in 1998. Well into the 1960s, Canada Wire and Cable was continuing to expand across Canada, leading to reorganization and development during the 1970s, with the updating of facilities in full process.
The work force reached 2,700 employees by 1978, with annual sales of 100 million. About 1991, Canada Wire and Cables property was purchased by Alcatel, a European firm. The property was sold when Alcatel moved from Leaside to Markham in 1996. The site was purchased the following year by Mitchell Goldhar and will be developed into box stores and a shopping mall. At the time of publication, the former buildings had been demolished and the slow process of clearing and decommissioning the soil has begun. Construction of the stores is slated for Spring 2000.
When the Canada Wire and Cable plant in Leaside was slated to be torn down, Alcatel, the owners, decided to let the people at the Todmorden Mills Museum remove whatever they wanted from the Canada Wire Archives. What was not taken by the museum was left for the employees working for the company at the time, to have whatever interested them. There was no record of who took what, so much of the Canada Wire memorabilia is now lost.
Ray Dade, a former employee and war veteran, wanted to know what had happened to the Roll of Honour that always hung in a hallway leading to the CWC reception area off Commercial Road. It not only contained his name, but also that of his brother, along with many of his childhood friends who were employees at Canada Wire and who had gone on to join the Services during the Second World War. The Roll contains some 287 names of those men and women. Some are bearing small crosses, signifying that they had made the ultimate sacrifice for King and Country.
After many phone calls, much tracking down of false leads and repeated visits to the almost flattened former building site, Ray came up empty-handed. No one knew who had liberated the Roll of Honour. His detective work finally paid off when, just on a whim, he went in to talk with someone at Branch 10, Todmorden Legion in East York. The search was over. Not only did the legion members know about the Honour Roll – it was hanging on their wall. Evidently, it had been found in a member’s basement. Knowing that someone would think it was important, the individual had dropped it off at the only place he knew. That was at the legion hall.
Ray, along with the Legion President, Roy Gray, and Gene Wazny and others, felt that a formal unveiling ceremony should take place to celebrate the Roll of Honour’s new-found home. This took place Sunday, October 25, 1998 at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 10 on Pape Avenue, Toronto. Many former employees of Canada Wire and Cable and their families were invited to attend this historic event to commemorate the lives of those men and women. The Roll of Honour was presented to the Branch 10 Legion and can be found there today.
THE LEASIDE MUNITIONS COMPANY
The onset of World War I and Britain’s need for shell production caused Canada Wire and Cable to suspend their Leaside operation and continue their production line on Dundas Street. The directors at Canada Wire saw an opportunity for the empty Leaside buildings and, on June 28, 1916, they incorporated to create and own the Leaside Munitions Company Ltd. The Imperial Munitions Board was set up in Ottawa to award contracts. Britain was in desperate need for shells and decided to utilize the industrial potential of its Dominions. The contract was awarded to Leaside in 1916 for the manufacture and assembly of 54,000 shells, all to be 9.2 inches in size. Workers, given bonuses after reaching a certain output level, were spurred on by huge clocks which recorded hourly production. Output was tremendous! Shells were turned out at a rate unheard of up to that time.
View showing the extent of the Leaside Munitions works, taken from a drawing made in late 1918. Originally in The Red Reel, The Story od Canada wire by J. Harry Pryce.
The 6” shells, being produced by Leaside Munitions in 1917, being given final inspection. Originally in The Red Reel, The Story of Canada Wire.
During this period, 4,000 people were employed at the plant. A 10-coach railway train operating every morning from Royce Avenue in the west end of Toronto, followed the CPR North Toronto line to the factory, bringing in the workers at a cost of $75.00 per day for the company. A fleet of buses running between Jackes Avenue and the Laird plant was provided, at no charge, by James Bristow, Albert Mould and George Aldridge. From this service developed the Bristow Transportation Company for Leaside residents.