Maintaining Family Values
A TRADITION OF COMMITMENT TO QUALITY AND CARE
Canada Auto has been a vehicle repair mainstay for the better part of the last century, with three generations of the same family in the driver’s seat. And for just as long, customers have been getting great mileage out of the service and high standards at Canada Auto, where a commitment to quality and respect for tradition
are key to keeping their rides roadworthy. Matthews Avenue and Century Street, Canada Auto got its start back in 1935, when Ukrainian immigrant Michael Iwanchuk began fixing cars out of the two-stall garage in the yard of his home on Fort Street and Graham Avenue.
“Fort Street used to be Automotive Row in Winnipeg,” says current Canada Auto manager Dan Iwanchuk, Michael’s grandson.
“You could buy a new car on Fort Street, and you could find wrecking yards on Fort Street — and pretty much everything in between.”
“Back then — this was around the time of the war — you couldn’t just go to the local auto parts store and buy parts, so (my grandfather would) have a lot of wrecked cars sitting around that he’d take parts from to keep the others running.”
By 1960, after Michael had moved into a new home and the garage was upgraded, ownership had passed to his son Jim (Dan’s father), who added a specialized engine-rebuilding department to the regular roster of auto repair services. A few years after Michael’s death in 1976, the company expanded to its current site, trading a 5,000-square-foot structure for one nearly four times that size, and in 1990, Dan and his brothers took over the company. The all-white paint job and single bay door meant passersby often mistook the building for either a block of offices or a Goodyear warehouse. That changed after Dan recruited a local muralist to recreate the facade of a 1930s-era service station, complete with red clay shingles and yellow brick, vintage sponsor signs, and an antique gas pump and air hose. Highly visible from Route 90, the artwork also features several additional bay doors (mirroring the eight bays that are really found inside) and — in a particularly moving touch — depictions of family members and former employees who’ve since passed away. Dan’s late brother, Randy, can be seen changing a tire on a 1947 Cadillac, while his grandfather polishes up a Model ‘A’ in the corner. Even his father, a machinist, is shown hard at work in Bay 5 — perhaps the most true-to-life depiction, given the real-life version still shows up for his shift five days a week.
“He’s a perfectionist,” says Iwanchuk of his dad, now 86. “He says he considers himself retired because he only works eight hours a day.”
Most importantly, the banners above each “bay” promote the full range of services inside — everything from brake, suspension and driveline work to tune-ups, l**e jobs and classic car rebuilding. As Dan — who got an early career start at age eight, sweeping floors while his father worked on cars nearby — puts it, both Canada Auto’s loyal customer base and Better Business Bureau accreditation speak to his family’s old-fashioned approach to customer care.
“We’ve been around cars all our lives … it shows the stability and the reputation we have,” he says. “It’s our work ethic and our commitment to getting the job done right.”
