In February 1915, a mechanic named Joe Watkin signed a dealer agreement with Ford in Vernon, B.C. One hundred and eleven years later, the dealership still carries his name, and Ford of Canada’s own records call it the oldest known Ford of Canada dealership. This is the story behind the photos on our wall: told, wherever we could, in Joe’s own words.
Ford Motor Company has challenged us to sell 50 vehicles in 11 days for our 111th anniversary. We accepted. See the Anniversary Sale →
Watch: The Name on the Door
The boy from Belfast
Joe Watkin was born in Belfast, Ireland, on October 27, 1887. His father died when Joe was eight, and at thirteen he went to work for the Belsize Motor Company in Manchester, England. His first job, he later wrote, was helping on the Benz car that made the first mail run from Liverpool to Manchester in 1900. In those days the law still required a man to walk ahead of a motor car carrying a red lantern.
He arrived in Toronto in 1903, where many factory doors carried signs reading “No English Need Apply.” He took what work he could find. He ran a freight elevator at Eaton’s, apprenticed as a toolmaker, shovelled snow when a Buffalo employer went bust, and worked for Hyslop Brothers, who sold the one-cylinder Cadillac. Then he joined the McLaughlin Carriage Company in Oshawa.
A secret Oldsmobile
At McLaughlin, Joe was one of four mechanics “spirited away” to the old Conboy Carriage Works on the Don River in east Toronto to build the first Oldsmobile in Canada, in secret. He was then promoted to testing the McLaughlin.
He chose Vernon
When General Motors took over McLaughlin in April 1911, the testing job ended. Mr. McLaughlin called his four testers into his office and asked where in Canada they would like to be sent. Joe chose Vernon. He arrived on July 8, 1911, with the first carload of McLaughlin cars, and spent three years “working all the hours God sent.” Then he started out on his own with one other mechanic. His first gas pump was a barrel with a siphon pump, a gallon measure, a funnel and a chamois.
February 1915: Joe signs with Ford
Ford’s own records date the dealership to February 1915. Joe wasn’t sure Vernon would buy, so one Saturday evening in April he and a Ford organizer started down Vernon’s main street together. In his telling, they sold seven cars in two hours. “From that day on,” he wrote, “I have never looked back.”
When the First World War broke out, Joe tried to enlist. The two examining doctors decided he had flat feet. Joe suspected the real reason was that they wanted to keep the one man in Vernon who could keep their cars on the road.
Building a town, seven cars at a time
Early Fords arrived “knocked down,” seven to a railway car, with the chassis at one end and the bodies at the other. Joe had four men assembling them all winter. When the new licences came out on the first of April, he delivered as many as seventy new Fords. In 1917 the bodies were back-ordered, so buyers drove around town for two weeks on carriage seats bolted to bare chassis. “It was quite a sight!”
Joe also drove the Duke of Connaught and Princess Patricia on their tour, and he was one of the founding members of Vernon’s Rotary Club. In 1934, the city bought its fire truck from Watkin’s. It stayed in service until 1977.
The boy who stayed
On March 15, 1931, a 14-year-old from Lavington named Jack Blankley quit school to work at the Vernon Garage. He cleaned windows, swept floors, pumped gas and repaired tires for $28 a month, $7.50 of it for his room. The pumps opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 11 p.m. Apart from three years in the army, Jack spent the rest of his working life in the car business.
In 1962, after Joe Watkin’s death, Jack and his wife Fern bought the dealership, and they made a choice that still shows on the sign: they kept Joe’s name. Their son Budd joined in 1966 and Bruce followed in 1976. Budd’s son Ross started out the way his grandfather did, cleaning cars at 16. Today he is Dealer Principal, with his cousin Scott as a partner.
The family kept giving back to the town. In October 1986, Watkin Motors donated $50 to the United Way for every new car sold that month. The 75th anniversary was marked with a cake big enough to cut three ways.
“The oldest known Ford of Canada dealership”
In December 1993, Ford of Canada’s president wrote to Bruce Blankley. Ford had reviewed its dealer agreements and found that Watkin Motors first signed with Ford in February 1915. A second review, of all its records for Canada, showed Watkin Motors was the oldest known Ford of Canada dealership. The letter ended with a challenge.
The dealership moved into its current 28,000-square-foot building on 27th Street in 2002. In 2015, Ford Canada President Dianne Craig came to Vernon to help celebrate 100 years.
111 years at a glance
In 1993, Ford challenged us to keep the tradition. This year, Ford challenged us to sell 50 vehicles in 11 days.
We accepted. To get there, we’ve priced the whole lot for the biggest savings of the year, and every vehicle sold counts toward the 50.
- Total savings up to $13,111 on select 2026 F-150s
- 0% financing on F-150 and Bronco Sport, OAC
- An extra Anniversary discount on every new Ford, on top of eligible Ford offers
- Special Anniversary prices on every pre-owned vehicle
- A free gift with every vehicle purchase*
4602 27th Street, Vernon. *While prizes last. One gift per vehicle purchase. Ask your sales professional for details. Offers on approved credit; see the sale page for eligible models and details.
Sources: J.H. Watkin, “Life Story,” The Dealers’ Digest (about 1961); letter from Ford Motor Company of Canada to Watkin Motors, December 14, 1993; The Morning Star profiles of Jack Blankley (about 1989) and the Blankley family (March 20, 1992); Vernon Morning Star, “Watkin rolls out a century of service” (September 13, 2015); photo-wall captions at Watkin Motors. Historic photos are from the dealership’s collection. The illustrations were made for our 111th anniversary documentary.