CITROËN AUTOCLUB CANADA
"THE WESTERN STORY"

by Chris Adshead (Vancouver, BC)

It's all Ralph Nader's fault; well at least that's whom many of us blame. Simply put, Citroën effectively left the North American market in 1972. Yes, they did sell a few SM's until 1975 but the last batch of D Series came over in 1972. They were shipped without headlights, and then were retrofitted with stationary buckets and sealed beam headlights by the few remaining dealers... over here.

The summer of 1972 was an anxious time for companies and dealers who had an investment in the Citroën brand. The factory was not being supportive, and nor were they giving out much information on the future of the marque in Canada or the USA.

Into this tense situation at the main Citroen office on Burrard Street in Vancouver BC, arrived a group of keen young Citroën enthusiasts from Victoria BC. Rupert Downing, John Long, and Stewart Young were in Vancouver looking for advice and some funding to start a new club. History proved that it would be a fruitless trip, with few Citroën cars being imported by the factory, there was little interest in club sponsorship.

Despite a lack of official support, Rupert and his friends published the first newsletter of "Citroën Club Canada" in February 1973 from John's bedroom. As John has told me it was a lot of work especially as the only "model" they had for the newsletter was the British "Citroenian." So based out of Victoria BC, they covered all of Canada. In this early period of the club's history, the main concern was that Citroën was giving up on the North American market. Much lobbying and letter writing was done. The following letter from the then Prime Minister of Canada, sums it up:

"Dear Mr. Downing, Thank you for your letter of the 4th telling me about the problems of Canadian Citroen Owners. Being something of an automobile buff myself, I appreciate the technological qualities of the Citroen, and sympathize with your feelings. However, the Ministry of Transport has the responsibility and the obligation to set safety standards for motor vehicles, and neither the Minister nor his officials can ignore the laws passed by Parliament on the matter. Whether the laws and regulations should be improved is always a good question, and in the event that the Honourable Jean Marchand can give me some helpful advice or guidance, I will forward your letter to his office. After I have heard from him, I will write further.

With best regards,
Very sincerely, Pierre Elliott Trudeau"

It is not known if we ever did hear further from the Prime Minister!

In 1974, my late wife Monika and I had just arrived back in Canada, after living in Germany. In Europe we had owned a Citroën AK van (our second with the first being a delightful AK250 when we lived in Winnipeg.) In May I was driving through Kitsilano and spotted a red 2CV, the owner Adrian Stott and I chatted about Citroëns and he told me about the club. He was excited that a big meeting was planned for the next month.

This first large gathering of the club was held at Rupert Downing's home in Victoria on June 8th 1974. It was at this meeting that the decision was made to change the clubs name from "Club Citroën Canada" to a more fully bi-lingual one. So we became "Citroen Autoclub Canada." At its height there were over 300 members. Over the next couple of years the club spluttered on and it evolved from being a lobby group to more of a social club. The newsletters we produced at that time were very simple but they did the job.

Monika and I helped by other local enthusiasts put out a few issues of the newsletter. Some of the founding members fell by the wayside, and producing the newsletter was taken over by Robert Buchanan in Montreal. He approached the project with a printer's zeal and provided the most professional magazine up to that date. This was a long time before the common use of computers and the Internet. Under Robert's care, local representatives sent in stories from across the country, and with Bernard Steinberg's help, the magazine was bi-lingual and entertaining. But (there always seems to be a "but" doesn't there!) this ended in early 1978. Robert felt that the membership was dwindling due to the lack of new cars. He later published some mini bulletins but by 1982 all Western Canadian contact was lost with this group.

After the demise of the Montreal based group, many of the original BC members kept in contact. The local repair shops and the Hollywood Citroën Car Club newsletter kept us up to date. Being gluttons for punishment, Monika and I decided that we would try again. We knew that Expo '86 was going to be a big event and that Adam Reif had planned a RAID from Montreal to Vancouver. We wanted to ensure that there was a decent sized reception when the Raiders arrived in BC.

We published our "first edition" in May 1985, and continued to run the club until April 1990 when we published issue 50. At that time there were well over 100 members, mostly in BC and Alberta. Finding that the work of running the club and putting out ten newsletters per year was getting to be too much, we looked for other members to take on the responsibility. Not finding any volunteers, our friends in Washington State agreed to merge their club with ours. Monika and I continued to produce the newsletter for "a while". That while became two years and our last issue was number 70 in April 1992.

Although we "ran" the club, it would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. A few of those who helped then, and continue enthusiastically now are Doreen Berrington, Richard Caspersen, Gary & Karoline Cullen, Beth Lindsay, Brian Yates, Walter Zell and (while he was not in on the beginnings of the club, he sure has been a key player since 1986) John MacGregor. My thanks to you all for your support and help. Today the Northwest Citroën Owners Club/Citroën Autoclub Canada continues to thrive under the direction of a dedicated group in Seattle.

In early 1986 we had discovered with great joy that there was another offshoot of the original club based in Toronto. As I write I know that club is still active and enjoys good membership. However, British Columbia is not totally without a Citroën "club". On Monika's birthday in 1993 we were talking to John MacGregor. We were discussing Ralph Nader and his political career. I said that I felt his book "Unsafe at any Speed" had not only killed off the Corvair, but also had put the final nail in the coffin of Citroën's sales in North America. There were two major concerns at the time. It was considered by some that the turning headlights were dangerous, and the factory believed that the cost of meeting the crash tests with their varying bumper height made it too expensive for them to stay in our market.

As we discussed this history, we realized that despite it all, there was still a faithful following for the make over here. Enthusiasts were importing older cars and interest in 2CV's especially was rising. That day we started 2CVBC. Don't we ever learn!