Courtesy of Erman Gunes (stock.adobe.com).

The Canadian Automotive Museum’s Downtown Oshawa Walking Tour is the brainchild of Greg Johnston, a member of the museum’s Board of Directors who has been visiting the museum’s collection since he was five.

“[It’s] really just a special place,” he says. “We’ve got everything from Buick to Bugatti. Even if you’re Jay Leno [noted car collector and former late-night host], you don’t have some of the cars that we have, because they’re one-of-one.”

About a decade ago, Johnston noticed a gap: visitors were pulling off the highway, touring the museum, then leaving without ever discovering the downtown core that made the city’s automotive story possible. So, he started leading these walks himself.

Aiming to bring the city’s rich auto history to life, the 90-minute tour begins in the downtown core with the industry’s true origin point. “This is where the first carriages were made before the car was ever made,” Johnston tells visitors as they trace the journey from a local carriage manufacturer to the deal that eventually created General Motors of Canada.

From there, the walk moves into buildings that once anchored Oshawa’s working life. One stop is a former union hall, active until 1990, now reborn as a coffee shop and event space called BOND|ST. Another is the old Genosha, once home to the General Motors Oshawa Hotel with a car dealership on its main floor. It’s now a market that hosts a variety of events and pop-up food vendors. The tour finishes back at the museum, where the grand finale brings to life the stories of cars built in Oshawa and others with a distinctly Canadian pedigree.

Courtesy of Greg Johnston.

What keeps people coming isn’t just the cars — it’s the connection. Johnston says some of his favourite moments come from visitors whose families worked the line when GM Oshawa employed 20,000 to 25,000 people. He’s especially moved by stories from new Canadians, including those who arrived after the Second World War or the fall of the Soviet Union, for whom the plant offered something rare: a fair shot regardless of accent or paperwork. As Johnston puts it, all it took was showing up and working hard — you could “clock in, do a quality job and go home” to a middle-class life.

The museum’s appeal reaches well beyond Oshawa. Johnston’s most recent tour had visitors from Colorado, New Jersey, Toronto and Sarnia, some of whom booked hotel rooms just for the museum visit and walk.

Tours typically run three to five times a year, and private group bookings are available as well. There’s no extra cost for the tour once you purchase a standard museum admission.

Ready to trace Oshawa’s road from carriage town to Canada’s Motor City? Click here for more information and to get tickets.