Frontenac (Ford of Canada marque)

Frontenac was a one-year automobile marque that Ford Canada introduced in 1960 to give Mercury-Meteor dealers a compact car to sell. It was a separate marque, as Lincoln was to Ford, and was marketed as such, but it was essentially a 1960 Ford Falcon with its own grille, tail lights and external trim, including red maple-leaf insignia. It was the second best-selling compact in Canada during its single year and took about 5 percent of Ford's total Canadian output, with 9,536 built at the Oakville, Ontario, plant. It was offered at launch in 2-door and 4-door sedan bodies, with station wagons added later. In August 1960 a prototype 1961 Frontenac was driven from Halifax to Vancouver for a photo shoot, only for the crew to learn that the Canadian model had been discontinued and replaced by the Comet for 1961. The name honoured a late 17th-century governor of New France and had been used on a car assembled in Toronto by Dominion Motors from 1931 to 1933.