Driving Force: The McLaughlin Family and the Age of the Car

The McLaughlin family transformed the face of Canada, first with the horse-drawn carriage and then with the motor car. The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, created in 1907, manufactured the closest thing to a Canadian car – the much-loved McLaughlin Buick.

This is the first book to chronicle the life of this influential family and, in particular, the dynamic entrepreneur and tycoon, Sam McLaughlin. Through the lens of Sam’s achievements, Robertson covers a wide range of social history: the fever of invention at the turn of the century, rum-running, the invention of Canada Dry ginger ale, the early unstable history of GM in the US, the Autopact of 1965, and much, much more. Part business story, part social history, Driving Force is an exciting approach to biography and to the complex drama surrounding the men who founded what became General Motors of Canada.