(first posted 3/9/2016) The Meteors are probably Ford of Canada’s most well known product but there are a couple more Canadian Ford marques including Monarch. The smaller Mercury 114 (and later the Meteor line) gave Mercury an entry level line at Ford prices in addition to the middle of the market Mercury models. This left Ford dealers at a disadvantage as they only carried the low priced line so in 1946 the Monarch line was introduced. This allowed Ford dealers to sell a mid market Mercury style car.
Based on the bigger 118″ wheelbase Mercury the early Monarchs used unique trim but looked more Ford like. The entire dashboard was even sourced from the smaller Ford model. A 239cid 97hpMercury flat head V8 completed the package. This particular one is a 1948 survivor.
Emulating the looks a cheaper car likely has never been a wise strategy so by 1956 the Monarch was still using the Mercury chassis and body shell but looked a lot less Ford like in trim and distinctly more Mercury like. Additionally the dashboard changed over to the Mercury rather than Ford one starting in 1949. By 1956 the Monarch was almost identical to a Mercury with mostly only trim to differentiate it.
This Monarch is powered by a 225hp 312cid Y-block Mercury V8. Amazingly this car has never been restored and is in extremely well preserved condition.
A good thing as I bet a lot of the unique trim would be a major challenge to track down. This V-shaped trim is mounted to the hood. Starting in 1949 Monarch adopted this lion logo.
The 1956 line up included the Lucerne, Sceptre and Richelieu models. The Richelieu was the top of line model for 1956 so that means lots and lots of chrome trim. Only a hard top model would have ranked higher than our featured car.
The Monarch lion motif on the truck with a continuation of the V-shape theme.
All Monarchs were built by Ford of Canada in their Oakville, Ontario plant.
The distinctive front end styling featured chrome bullets unusually centered in the grill. Perhaps it was an attempt to channel a bit of the same year Thunderbird.
This particular car was sold at Maclin Motors Ltd in Calgary, Alberta. Maclin Motors is still in business and has been for a hundred years although they are now known as Maclin Ford. This car spent most of its sheltered life in the mountain area of Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta.
It is fantastic that such an interesting and original Canadian car is still in existence. The two tone paint with the white roof is a particularly sharp looking color (or colour since we are talking Canadian cars) scheme.
Sweet looking car. I find the Canadian Monarch more attractive than our US sold Ford and Mercury models of the same year.
just to advise Seattle, the Monarchs and Mercurys came off the same line in Oakville Ford plant. In 1956 Monarch outsold the Merc in Canada
I had the same Richelieu, my black and white were reversed, with baby blue interior, amazing car and the 312 engine, I believe the same engine they put in the 56 Thunderbird was best engine I’ve ever had. Sure wish I still had it.
Count me as a fan.Nice find & read thank you
+1. and Monarch Rchelieu is a great name as well!
The Monarch was always popular with French Canadians in Quebec, hence the French model names. For English speaking Quebecois, the “luxury” brand was Pontiac.
Beautiful car but I wonder if anyone in Quebec took offense to the use of the name (Richelieu) of such a notorious figure.
Oddly, Cardinal Richelieu is seen as a folk hero in Quebec.
Care to explain why? Can’t get the “Dogtanian” theme tune out my head now.
Probably nothing more than the fact he was Catholic.
No, his assistance to Louis XIII (some say with reasonable conviction that he WAS the government) was the beginning of French greatness on the world stage. Think “Three Musketeers” era, Richard Lester’s movies made him look like a bit of a heavy whereas he was really one of the French greats. After his death, Cardinal Mazarin took his job, and his term of service extended into the reign of Louis XIV.
The beginnings of New France (Quebec, etc.) begin with Louis XIII and Richleau.
Keep in mind that a lot of the Quebecois consider themselves French, and only slightly Canadian.
Should it be possible that IT had been named by the French Battleship “Le Richelieu”???
They named a city after him, so the car was probably more a reference to that, considering Mercury’s tendency to name its cars after places (Monterey, Montclair, Park Lane, Colony Park, etc.).
Very well done article on a potentially confusing story!
A beautiful car and a fascinating one, too. Tell me – in 1956 Canada, was there a generally agreed-upon view on whether a Mercury or a Monarch was higher than the other in the FoMoCo pecking order?
It is amazing the number of variations stylists had to come up with on these. I want to say how overstyled it is, but as I look at it, it is really cool as can be. That gigantic lance on each side, the bumper bullets towards the middle of the grille, and that 35 pound casting in the hood – not sure that I would get rid of any of them, and I might prefer this to the American Mercury.
The overstyledness/overstyledidity of it reminds me of the Vauxhall Velox/Cresta. It seems like a cross between late 50s early 60s Vauxhalls and British Fords.
Daewoo had overstyled the Vauxhall Carlton/Royale/Senator (Opel Rekord-E, Commodore and Senator) shells with the Daewoo Duke/Royale Series: Duke, Royale Duke, Royale Prince, Royale Salon, Imperial (!!!), Super Salon and Brougham…with lots of plush, leather, chrome-alike trims and front grilles, vinyl-top, hood ornaments, wire wheel alike hubcaps, a/t, a/c and lots of other -then rarely to be found in Opels/Vauxhalls- electronics and gadgets.
The Monarch was slightly more expensive than the corresponding Mercury model for model. Nearly all manufacturers during the 50’s had French-named models for the Quebecois.
Good question.
Being only six years old at the time, my impressions won’t quality as expert opinion. But my memory in our small New Brunswick town is that Monarchs were more common than Mercurys, and Meteors (the retrimmed Ford sold by Mercury dealers) more common than Fords. Which is puzzling when you’d think the numbers of each might be related to whatever dealers there were in the vicinity – that was the apparent reason for the whole strategy after all.
Our particular town however had very strong Loyalist roots, the area being settled by ‘refugees’ from the American Revolution, and in the 1950’s that tradition was still very strong. So it’s possible that these cars were more popular in our town simply by being perceived as ‘more Canadian’ than their counterparts.
In other parts of the country with different histories the choices might have been made for different reasons. You’d think that perhaps the Mercury versions of each car might have had slightly more cachet than the Ford versions and be priced slightly higher accordingly, but I can’t find original price lists online to confirm that.
My own highly subjective childhood impressions were that Meteor trim was overwrought and tacky, which made it less desirable than the cleaner looking ‘American’ Ford. Monarchs however I thought looked great. They were heavily detailed as well, but somehow it seemed more successful. But possibly, being steeped in Loyalist tradition, I just liked the name. 🙂
I used to think it was bizarre that some of the last few Morris Minor vans & pickups were badged as Austins “so they could be sold through Austin dealerships”. That was until I became more familiar with the American market and all the contortions over what can be sold through what dealer. (and what is a brand what isn’t a brand 😉 )
The Canadian Ford stuff takes the cake. Nothing against the cars, but it’s just daft.
A few years ago there was some controversy in Scotland as Catholic & “non-denominational” schools began to share campuses, and the Catholic church complained that although the schools were still separate institutions, Catholic teachers were having to share toilets with Protestant teachers. Kinda reminds me of that. But crazier.
The Morris Marina was also sold here as the Austin Marina.
David,in Australia they were sold as the Leyland Marina and I drove many working in the showroom for the dealer.They were the worst cars I have ever driven.Did you get the 6 cylinder version? It had the Leyland P76 6 cylinder which made the Marina very fast but with that heavy lump of an engine in the front it made the highly questionable handling even worse.Here in Tasmania on a daily basis I see many classic cars but no Marinas,not one.I like the b/w Ford,reminds me a little of our 1955 b/w Buick Special with those bomb shells on the front and doesn’t the fan shaped instrument cluster look like a 1950s Chevrolet?
No – we only got the 1.8L in single or twin carb format. The one pictured above had 280,000+ miles on it!
I’d love to find one (hopefully in a bit better shape than that) as a gift to my brother-in-law. And then I duck and run. He had one back in the late 70’s, an absolutely abysmal car. Quality control made a Yugo look good.
Oddly enough there are many Marinas where I live usually driven by elderly original owners, a fellow Humber Hillman club member told me of a Marina 262 he owned,
he bought it as a collectable and hated it to drive but great as a conversation piece and was very difficult to resell.
Kiwibryce,when I was a boy living in a small midlands village,approx 50 houses,we were not farm owners,a local farm we had to walk through on the way to primary school,a one room timber building with two fireplaces for grades one to four.They owned a beautiful stone and timber historic house and many beautiful timber barns.They mainly drove in their ute but inside one of the barns was their rarely used gold coloured Humber Super Snipe,approx early 1950s,Metal sunroof,leather interior and in great condition in the mid 1960s.I always thought that it was a great looking car.
That’s a bit more logical though, the decision was that Austin was a stronger brand name in US/Canada.
In the UK we got Chrysler Neons, never got Plymouth and only recently got one or two Dodge models because iirc, Renault owned the name “Dodge” in the UK.
We also recently got most of the Lancia range badged as Chryslers because apparently “Chrysler” is marginally less toxic than “Lancia” to UK consumers.
I drove a 74 Austin Minor van for a couple of weeks crinkle grille and horn push badge were the main differences oh and Austin on the tappet cover it still had the Morris SU fuel pump and sidedraft carb, Austins mostly used Zenith down draft and mechical cam driven pump.
Love it! I never tire of these alternate universe American cars. What great original condition, and I’m particularly fond of the B/W theme.
Good one DS, I don’t think I’ve seen a 56 like that but there was a 1948 Monarch beside a barn locally for a few years. I knew it was a 46-48 Ford product but the grille set me off, now I know what it was!
Where did you take these pics?
The Heritage Acres Annual Show – its held on a Farm Museum.
http://heritageacres.org/Events/Event-History/2015-Events
Huge number of vintage tractors (can be seen in the background of some of the above photos), working farm equipment including vintage harvest machines. A vintage saw mill in use. Steam tractor driving and around and working. Plus a car show as an added bonus. Fantastic event I need to write up sometime.
I have a handful of photos posted from last year here (but should upload more) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/daveseven/albums/72157656800918971
I’m a bit confused by the difference between a Monarch and a Meteor, I always thought that Meteor was the brand and Monarch was the model.
Like others here, I love these “alternate universe” cars. It’s amazing to see the different permutations of the same basic car. From looking at different Canadian market cars it appears as though sometimes the stylists went overboard with the chrome in some years (mostly the 50s) while they went a bit too far in the direction of fairly plain in the late 60s.
They are both the brand. Meteor was a Ford like car sold at Mercury dealerships. Monarch was a Mercury like car sold at Ford dealerships. A lot of Canadian towns had either a Ford OR a Mercury dealership. The other type of dealership could have been hundreds of kms away. Sounds crazy but the differences between them mostly came down to trim.
And from ’65-’72, Meteor was a Mercury-like car with a Ford dash and interior.
In ’73, they became a clone of the Monterey, inside and out. Curiously, the Meteor lived on until ’76, while the Monterey went away after ’74.
I came across a ’48 Monarch coupe a few years ago. It was at a rest stop on the 401 near Woodstock, Ontario – black with mag wheels and some patina. There’s a good chance that it didn’t have a flathead under the hood.
Here’s a 59 Meteor 2 door “Country Sedan” wagon I saw at a North Vancouver car show last summer…slightly “hot rodded”!
I’ve seen that same exact car. At the Hard Rock Casino show.
And the side view…
Somebody tell the couple on the far side of the blower to get a room!
I believe the 1956 Monarch series were Custom, Lucerne and Richelieu (named for the river in Quebec, not the cardinal). The Sceptre was available 1959-60 only and paralleled the longer wheelbase (’59 only) Mercury Park Lane. There had been no 1958 Monarch as it was dropped to make room for the Edsel, which was given to Ford dealers as their medium price offering, but it was reintroduced for 1959 initially as the “Monarch Mark II”.
Well, the river was named after….. 😉
Here’s a shot of the ’48…
And another…
and another
Nice read. A bit busier than the Merc but 56 was such a great body shape.
Lovely car, maybe prettier than a Mercury.
But with Mercurized Fords and Fordized Mercuries, I’d love to know how the Canadian Ford family tree’s prestige order went. If I’ve got it right, these would have occupied a market position somewhat similar to the Edsel. So how come the Edsel failed while these seem to have succeeded?
Prestige wise
Meteor is roughly equal to Ford
Monarch is rough equal to Mercury
Two sides to the same coin.
As a kid, I always looked on Meteors as being a step below Fords, but maybe because I always thought the big V/star logos were a little tacky. 🙂 But when you consider it was a Mercury, maybe it was meant to be a step up?
Even Canadians are confused….
I can run hot and cold on ’50s Ford products, and usually find black / white schemes too stark.
But, I simply love this car. The power windows also really make it standout for equipment level.
The low-roofed, dropped-sill ’55-’56 Mercury-Monarch Sport Sedans were some of the most appealing sedans of the era, love the chrome-trimmed greenhouse. Sharing most of the body structure with the four door hardtops was a brilliant move.
Beautiful car. Am I the only one who thinks it looks like a junior Packard?
Funny you should mention Packard, President James Nance expressed continual consternation over how well Mercurys were selling as compared to their Clippers.
In the late 60s we went to Vancouver for our holidays were I spotted a 50s Monarch & a Meteor. For many years I was puzzled by who made them. It must have been even more confusing when the Mercury Meteor was sold!
Nice though they are there’d be a lot of Ford products fighting each other for sales, even more when the Edsel hit the showrooms
Late thought on the Canadian Ford products: I think the group in general can agree that the Canadian products were a bit “louder” in their styling than their American counterparts. Now, if one goes back thru the article showing clays in the Fifties that didn’t see the showroom floor, it seems that Ford (and the other American producers, for that matter) would start out with incredibly wild, bordering on tasteless at times, designs; toning them down bit by bit until the final showroom-ready design was finished.
Which has me wondering: We’re the Canadian Ford products deliberately designed “louder” due to American perception of Canadian tastes, or, did the Canadians just get the American design that didn’t quite make the final cut fobbed off on them?
If I could have any 50s vintage American car, as unconventional a choice as it may be, I think I would choose a Mercury. There’s just something about the Wurlitzer jukebox inspired detailing, especially in the interiors, that screams 50s.
Their IPs are like works of art. Sitting behind the wheel, looking at that as the Y-Block burbles, has to be awesome.
A beautiful, rare car in wonderful untouched condition. I always love these survivor cars.
The Lion + the 3 Maple Leafs hood ornamentation… Does it mean that IT is “Genuine Canadian”???
Yes and I am lucky enough to have found one
Very cool “alternate universe” Mercury! I particularly love that hood trim–not for the faint of heart, but looks great on black.
Lots of great reading about the Ford Monarch’s.. I have been searching high and low for as much info as I can on the 1956 4 door hard top FORD MONARCH RICHELIEU PHAETON.. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction here.. We are restoring one currently and I am wondering has anyone had luck finding new window rubbers for one? I have ordered some from the USA but have not been correct.. Does anyone know where to order from in Canada or USA? We are in Canada but I dont have a problem ordering from USA if I can get my hands on them..
Hi , same thing for me , if you ever find , let me know .
At the beginning of the ’56 Monarch Richelieu article it states that the Lucerne, Sceptre, and Richelieu Monarchs debued in 1956 which is partially true. The Sceptre actually debued in 1959 as Monarch’s version of the top line Mercury.
An uncle had a Monarch in 1957/8, but I hadn’t developed a car interest yet. An older cousin had a Frontenac. Canada model Falcon, I think about 1960ish. My dad’s first car in Canada was a 1956 Ford Tudor wagon with the T-bird engine, based on the badges on the fender. It was the only eight cylinder car he ever owned.
I remember Ford Monarch and also far fewer Lincoln Mercury dealers in town.
I just wonder if they made enough profit on the Meteor and Monarch derivatives to pay for the tooling expenses on the unique trim pieces. Production considering Canadian population numbers had to be pretty low.
That is quite a Monarch in a very bold two-tone paint scheme.
As a little kid Monarchs and other Mercury models of that era seemed to be everywhere. Or, at least that’s how it seemed. Many of the drivers I saw in them would have duck tail haircuts and white t-shirts. Then by the early sixties those cars seemed to disappear.
David Are you going to the Red Deer Swat Meet next Saturday?
Unfortunately, it is a bit of a drive from Lethbridge so probably will give that one a miss given gas prices.
Understand. I’m hoping we’re not going to exceed $1.67 here in Calgary in the days ahead.
WOOF! Nice car. I used to collect Canadian brochures when I was a youngster.