It wasn’t hard to total the assets of Canada Cartage back in February, 1914. One horse, one wagon and one driver.

The driver was a young Scot named Robert Leslie. He waited tables in Toronto and washed dishes in a restaurant to start his tiny business.

By 1917 his original horse had 13 more to keep it company, plus one of the first trucks in Toronto. Eleven years later Canada Cartage had more than 20 trucks and a spanking new tractor with a 14 foot van semi-trailer in it’s fleet.

In 1928 a tractor trailer was a rare sight. In 1964, in it’s fiftieth anniversary year, Canada Cartage had 97 tractor trailers and 225 straight trucks.

It took but a carload of oats to keep the Canada Cartage of 1914 on the road. Half a century later 900,000 gallons of fuel poured into the company’s units to keep them rolling some five million miles per year.

Mr. Leslie always had time to give to his community. During the depression he set up a food and clothing depot in Trinity Park for unemployed men. It ran through the thirties and was entirely financed by Mr. Leslie. He was an alderman for Toronto’s ward five, he ran for mayor in 1934 and 1935 and was always active in welfare work.

Robert Leslie was President and CEO of Canada Cartage from 1914 to 1946. Following in his father’s footsteps, Rodger Leslie joined Canada Cartage System in 1930 and became President and CEO in 1946. Rodger held this position from 1946 to 1979.

In 1979, W.W. (Bill) Lindsay and F.T. (Fred) Leslie co-owned and jointly guided Canada Cartage until 2001. For anyone growing up in the Toronto area and traveling along the infamous Gardener Expressway leading into the downtown core of the city, the site of the big Canada Cartage logo and the Canada Cartage trucks lined up at the Queensway terminal were as much a part of the city as the Maple Leafs and Centre Island.

In 2001, the controls of Canada Cartage were once again handed over and a fourth generation of Leslie’s and a second generation of Lindsay’s assumed the lead.

Under the guidance of Jeff Lindsay, Canada Cartage embarked upon a successful acquisition campaign where companies such as All Ontario, Mel Hall and OK Transportation became part of Canada Cartage System.