Not so sure that it was that the recession hit Canadian canoe builders hard as much as the change in recreational trends....such as canoeing not being as popular as kayaking....however there are many great builders (especially of wooden canoes) in Canada....many small independent operations....building a few canoes per year....and not usually associated with building for other canoe companies (such as Alain Rheaume does for Langford and American Traders)....some were listed in the Globe & Mail article such as Bill Miller, John Killbridge, Will Ruch, Doug Ingram, etc.....as well there is a Wooden Canoe Builders Guild (made up mostly of N.American builders, but also includes John Wilkinson of Valkyrie Boats in Northern Ireland)....
When the Globe & Mail wrote The Canadian Canoe Runs Into Rapids, this article about canoe building in Canada was most interesting….especially about Bill Miller who is running the current oldest canoe building operation in Canada…Bill Miller’s workshop is near the Tobique River in northern New Brunswick and he lovingly crafts canvas-covered cedar canoes in the tradition established by his grandfather in 1925.
This Globe and Mail article last year detailed the canoe market in Canada, from Miller’s 85 year old small operation with a production of about 6 canoes a year (plus restoration and even scale models) to Langford Canoe (based near Dwight, Ontario who claim to be Canada’s oldest canoe builder of any significance after 70 years, because they produce so many canoes….even though they outsource their canoe production)….and includes a list of some other current canoe builders from across Canada (as well as some interesting insights from each). There was also a photo essay on Bill Miller and his canoe building business, A Family Tradition Lives On.
I found the following quotes of interest:
Making love in a canoe is hard – as any true, hot-blooded Canadian knows – but making money from canoes is even harder. – Globe & Mail article, A Canadian Craft Encounters Rapids, by Gordon Pitts
Unless you are building a couple of hundred boats a year, you don’t count - Steve MacAllister, president of Langford Canoes
There are probably 100 guys in Canada that have been building canoes in their garage for years, but they don’t really count as companies - Steve MacAllister, Langford Canoe
Every year, we get some farmer come in and say ‘Well, we’ve been building canoes for 250 years.’ We say, ‘Great, and so have the Indians, but are you building thousands of them a year for 40 straight years?’ The answer, of course is, ‘No, we build one a year if we’re lucky.’ - Steve MacAllister, Langford Canoe
I have no interest in building a plastic canoe – Bill Miller
I’ve got 36 more years before I retire. I will gladly build my last canoe on my 100th birthday – Bill Miller
The canoe market is moving back to where it used to be – Bill Swift, on the trend of young families and baby boomers away from power boats due to awareness of the environment and physical fitness
I’ve been doing this since I was a kid – Barry Sharpe, Sharpe’s Canoes, Mann’s Mountain, N.B.
My hands are on every stage of production. If you spend two or three months making something, it becomes a chunk of you, like for a painter. - Will Ruch, Ruch Canoes, Bancroft, Ont.
The survival formula in canoe making is “being married to someone with a real job.” - according to John Kilbridge, Temagami Canoe Company, Temagami, Ontario
As someone said, canoeing is a fringe activity and wood canoes are the fringest of the fringe - Doug Ingram, Red River Canoes, Lorette, Man.
No one gets rich making canoes - Larry Bowers, West Country Canoes, Eckville, Alta.
Obviously the opinions of the owner of Langford Canoe Company, Steve MacAllister, are not shared by several other canoe builders….personally I don’t think the number of canoes built per year is all that designates one as a canoe company or even a canoe builder….many of the smaller canoe builders (even those ‘working out of their garages’) build a beautiful canoe….especially those who build wood canoes. My friend Bruce Smith is such a builder….his wood canvas canoes are a work of art, but totally functional at the same time….keeping a tradition alive….a tradition that, not that many years ago, involved many Canadians, especially in Peterborough and Fredricton….and Bruce is but one such builder….there are several others still building canoes in the old ways….out of small shops (usually one-man operations)….such as Pam Wedd, Roger Foster, Doug Long, Dale Case or other members in the Wooden Canoe Builders Guild (Bruce Smith is also a member of the Guild)….or folks like Doug Ingram, Will Ruch, Dick Persson, Hugh Stewart, John Kilbridge and Bill Miller. To me it isn’t about the quantity but the quality that makes a canoe builder.
The Globe & Mail returned to looking at the Canadian canoe business on Canada Day (well actually the day before)….this time solely on the Langford Canoe Company in an article entitled Canoe President ‘Like Mr. Ambassador For Canada’. Here are a few excerpts from this article:
Mr. MacAllister, president of Langford Canoe, didn’t fancy himself as a canoe enthusiast when his father purchased the company from its original owner in the late 1980s. He was away serving in the military and only ventured up to the Muskoka head office in Dwight, Ont., when he was going to his cottage. But when he took over the business in 1999 something changed.
“People from all over the world (are) calling you and they associate canoeing and everything in Canada with the company, you’re like Mr. Ambassador for Canada,” he says.
Langford’s original owner began crafting canoes in 1940, making it Canada’s oldest canoe company, according to Mr. MacAllister. The assertion has been disputed by other canoe-makers but he says the claims should be dismissed because those makers don’t churn out enough to be considered a company.
In recent years Langford has sold about 1,400 canoes. It’s a number that remains fairly consistent but it’s slowly going up, Mr. MacAllister says.
Mr. MacAllister’s father, Keith…..stumbled into the canoeing business when he bought the land Langford Canoe sat on. Mr. MacAllister says his father wasn’t initially planning on keeping the business going. Within a few months, however, he witnessed the demand for Canadian-made canoes both domestically and internationally….
….Keith MacAllister kept the business and modernized it, adding composite canoes to the brand that traditionally included wooden canoes. Compared to the wooden kind, Kevlar, fibreglass and carbon fibre canoes take less time to make and cost less.
The busiest season at the Muskoka and Toronto stores coincides with cottage season and is typically between Canada Day until Labour Day. To stock the stores 30 employees working at the Quebec composite and wood plants build from mid-January until November.
Years ago the majority of buyers were “hardcore paddlers” who knew almost everything there is to know about canoes but recently that’s changed, Mr. MacAllister says. He says more people are now interested in outdoorsy and green activities like boating so his clientele are more diverse.
It’s apparent that Steve MacAllister still doesn’t give other canoe builders their due….because those makers don’t churn out enough to be considered a company. And I don’t agree with Langford’s claim that they are Canada’s oldest canoe company (I believe Bill Miller has the oldest Canadian canoe company). Now I think that it is great that Langford Canoe has so many people buying their product….even for anybody being an ‘ambassador’ to canoeing in Canada….even for people to want red canoes when they think of Canada (although I don’t share that opinion personally, since my favourite canoe is a green wood canvas canoe). However, no offense intended to Mr. MacAllister or Langford Canoe, but there are others out there who still build canoes….people who actually build canoes, not have them built for them. And such people are as relevant to canoe building and the paddlesports industry in Canada as anyone else is….maybe even more so.
I’m obviously biased but I’m with Bill Miller: I have no interest in building a plastic canoe. I love wood canvas canoes….especially one very special green canoe (built by my buddy, Bruce Smith).
Sorry if this post gets away from the original content of the thread....but the Globe & Mail article(s) do bring up some interesting points that I thought were worth commenting on....
