About the Founder

Réal Fortin

Canadian Armed Forces veteran · Founder, O Canada Cars

RF
Réal Fortin
Founder · O Canada Cars
🎖️ Canadian Armed Forces Veteran 📍 Ottawa Valley, Ontario ✉️ info@ocanadacars.ca

My name is Réal Fortin. I'm a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, and I built this platform because I needed it and it didn't exist.

A few years back, during a rough stretch in Canada-US trade relations, I decided to buy a new truck. Simple enough goal: I wanted a vehicle that supported Canadian manufacturing. That turned into hours of digging through government databases, manufacturer disclosure forms, and automotive sites that were built to sell me a vehicle, not inform me. The data was out there — scattered across NHTSA filings, AALA submissions, window sticker disclosures — but no one had pulled it together in a way that made sense to a regular person trying to make a values-based decision.

In the end, there was no Canadian-built compact pickup to buy. So I made the most informed call I could. I bought a Toyota Tacoma — assembled in Mexico under CUSMA, from a manufacturer with one of the largest Canadian vehicle manufacturing footprints in the country. It wasn't a perfect answer, but it was a principled one. I knew exactly why I made that call.

Most Canadians don't have the time or inclination to do what I did. And they shouldn't have to.

That's what O Canada Cars is. It's the tool I wished existed when I was standing on a dealership lot trying to figure out what the right choice was.

— Réal Fortin, Founder

The O Canada Score pulls together final assembly location, North American content percentage, engine origin, and transmission origin into a single transparent number. No agenda. No lecturing. Just clear data so you can decide what matters to you.

I'm not trying to tell you what to buy. I'm trying to make sure you actually know what you're buying.

If that score ends up helping even a handful of Canadians make a purchasing decision that keeps one more job in this country, that's worth something real to me.

Questions, corrections, or partnership inquiries: info@ocanadacars.ca