McLaughlin Motor Car Company Limited was a Canadian manufacturer of automobiles headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario.

Robert McLaughlin began building carriages in 1867 beside the cutters and wagons in his blacksmith's shop in Enniskillen, a small village 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Oshawa, Ontario.

Attracting a great deal of demand, he ignored tempting offers and elected to sell the mechanism to his competitors rather than license other manufacturers.

Before he was halfway to Oshawa (approximately a 30-mile drive), McLaughlin knew he preferred the design of the Buick to the Jackson automobile.

[8][10][11] "We brought him [Milbrath] to Oshawa," Sam later recounted, "and installed him in one of our buildings, on the west side of Mary Street, which had been set aside as the automobile shop.

From a Cleveland firm, we ordered cylinders, pistons, and crankshafts to our specifications, and engine castings to be worked in our own shop.

[8] It has been suggested that Milbraith's ailment was actually a case of "diplomatic flu", which gave the McLaughlins an excuse to partner with Durant and build Buicks.

[17] Durant, also a partner in Durant-Dort, had a great deal in common with Sam McLaughlin, as both were part of the largest carriage companies in their respective countries.

[18][10] Durant borrowed heavily and bought other automotive businesses for his General Motors company, including Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Oakland (Pontiac), but vehicle sales collapsed, factories were closed for twelve months, and more.

[20][24] Sam McLaughlin remained chairman of the board of General Motors of Canada, and vice-president and executive director of the parent company, until his death in 1972 at the age of 100.

[26] In 1936, the Dunsmuirs, a coal magnate family in Victoria, British Columbia, ordered three special-order 1936 Buick-McLaughlin Phaetons for three of their daughters.

[27] In 1937, the convertible phaeton bought for Elinor Dunsmuir was used to drive U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt around Victoria during his state visit.

[25] Residents of other rapidly developing countries living under conditions not unlike the U.S. and Canada had a strong preference for well-engineered and robust American cars.

During World War I, Britain erected high tariff barriers to protect their industry from America's low-priced mass-produced but good-quality cars.

The British were struggling to repay U.S. War Loans and unwilling to allow their businesses unrestricted access to Canada's currency to buy Canadian cars.