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Car and Trailer, Leamington, 1913

THIS POPE-TRIBUNE MODEL X runabout was photographed in 1913 in front of H.O. Daykin Insurance at 6 Erie Street South in Leamington, Ontario. William F. Sanford is at the wheel, with Jeff Foster beside him. The Deming Hotel in the background was replaced in 1922 by the Bank of Montreal, which still occupies that site today. The Pope-Tribune was manufactured by Colonel Pope in Toledo, Ohio, from 1904 to 1907, making the car in the photo at least six years old. It may have been shipped new by freighter across Lake Erie to the Leamington dock.

The year this photo was taken (1913) was also the first year Canadian motorists were able to join a national organization promoting the interests of the motoring public. The birth of the CAA is superbly chronicled in Cars of Canada:

At the second meeting of the old Toronto Automobile Club, Secretary T.A. Russell had read a letter from the Automobile Association of America inviting the Torontonians to become a division of the AAA. A lengthy debate followed, but finally on the urging of Dr. Doolittle, the idea was rejected. The Americans would be told that while co-operation was a constant goal, Canadian motorists wanted their own national organization.

This dream came true in 1913, with formation of the Canadian Automobile Association, to which almost all present-day clubs are affiliated. A preliminary meeting on September 3 that year met with such enthusiasm that when a permanent organization was set up on December 30 there were 22 clubs from Halifax to Vancouver involved … Permanent headquarters were set up in Ottawa in 1914.³

The town of Leamington began paving its streets that same year.