On the east side of Laird Drive stood the Leaside manufacturing plant of the Canada Wire and Cable Company. Founded in 1911 by Roderick Parke, Herbert Horsfall, and Emil Wallberg, the Company purchased 16 acres of land from the York Land Company in the new Town of Leaside in 1914, becoming the Town’s first major industry and beginning a long-lasting relationship.
The York Land Company, the development arm of the Canadian Northern Railway, had assembled over 1,000 acres in the wilds of north Toronto. Fredrick Todd of Montreal, a town planner and landscape architect, was commissioned to lay out a plan for a model town. Todd’s detailed street plan separated industrial and residential lands, using Laird Drive as the dividing road. With the plan completed, in April 1913, the Province incorporated the Town of Leaside with a population of 43.
The symbiotic relationship between the Town and Canada Wire lasted over 80 years. Canada Wire became a world leader in wire and cable production due to its Leaside Plant. Similarly, the Town earned a reputation as one of the most attractive neighborhoods for families and businesses in Toronto, if not the entire province, due to the presence of Canada Wire.
Originally, the Company produced cable for the Province’s expanding hydroelectric power network and wire rope for logging, mining, drilling, and elevators. In 1918, it funded the construction of the Town’s first water system, vital to the Town’s residential and industrial prosperity. The Company also built a 117-foot water tower, a Leaside landmark until 1956. Between 1918 and 1924, the Company donated space for the Town’s first school. Company workers were the Town’s first volunteer firefighters, responding whenever the Town’s fire alarm sounded in the Plant. The Company built over 60 houses on Airdrie Road, Randolph Road, and Sutherland Drive for its workers to purchase.
The Leaside Plant made significant contributions to the nation’s efforts in both World Wars. During World War I, the Plant’s 4,000 employees produced munitions shells, becoming North America’s largest producer of six-inch shells. A 10-coach train from west Toronto transported workers to and from the Leaside Plant. Its reputation as an efficient and reliable manufacturer led the United States Army to award Leaside Munitions, a subsidiary of Canada Wire, a contract in 1918 to produce shells. The U.S Army was so eager for Leaside Munitions to produce shells that it financed the construction of a factory on a 5-acre site beside Canada Wire’s Leaside Plant. However, the war in Europe ended before a single shell could be shipped out from the new Leaside factory. In return for the canceled munitions contract, the U.S Army gave Canada Wire the newly built factory.
The Company sold the factory to Durant Motors, which produced automobiles from 1924 to the mid-1930s. With the demise of Durant Motors in 1934, Canada Wire repurchased the 5-acre site to expand its production of wire and cable. During World War II, the Plant produced aircraft wires, navy cables, field telephone wires, and anti-submarine nets to protect our nation’s coastal harbors.
About 300 of the Plant’s 1,200 workers enlisted to serve the nation in the Second World War. The Company proudly displayed the Roll of Honour, inscribed with the names of employees who served, in its reception area. A tiny cross by a name denotes those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Now, the Roll of Honour is displayed at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 10 on Pape Avenue.
After the war, the Leaside Plant shared in the nation’s economic prosperity. In 1956, the Leaside Plant expanded to include the 9-acre site of the former Frigidaire factory. In 1959, the Company added the 100-foot-high vulcanizing extruder tower, a Leaside landmark for decades. By the 1970s, the Company was the nation’s largest producer of cable and wire, with plants from coast to coast. At its peak, the Leaside Plant covered over 25 acres and was a major employer in the Town. The Plant continued to contribute to the well-being of Leaside until it ceased operations in 1996.
We salute the men and women who gave their labor and ingenuity for the betterment of the Company, the Town of Leaside, and the nation.
