[David_Hayward (RIP)]

So far as I can tell, the historical answer is that all provinces followed British pattern, that is with the cart driver on the right near the crown of the road, because most people are right-handed. This contrasts with the US-style of having the driver on the left. In the US I believe that by 1916 the States and Territories had settled on driving on the right, and with Henry Ford's dictating, cars were all left-hand drive. After 1916 rhd cars and trucks (apart from postal vehicles, etc.) were generally export vehicles and tended over the years to be left to the Canadian subsidiairies. Europe mostly followed Napoleon's decree that, aping ancient Rome, traffic travelled on the right of the road although I gather Italy drove on the right in towns and left outside towns for some time?

Anyhow, in Canada the Provinces seem to have followed British practise until US influence perhaps or for other reasons they gradually switched over to driving on the right with all right-driving by 1924 I think*. That said the vehicles were all lhd anyway, similar to Sweden in the years before they switched in 1967. That left out Newfoundalnd which was a British colony, and an export market for US and Canadian vehicles, where they drove on the left until Confederation, with a switch in 1948. I have seen very few photos of vehicles in Newfoundland pre-war, and the only ones I have been able to see the steering position on were in St John's in the mid-1920s and they were lhd. I assume that all vehicles were therefore lhd but perhaps someone knows differently?

In recent years GM of Canada have produced special rhd vans for the Canadian postal service, and Jeep still produce rhd vehicles for the US Postal Service, US Dept of Foresty that provide postal services in the Parks, etc., and private contractors who deliver mail in rural areas. There are a few companies that do rhd conversions for postal deliveries as well.

The 1965 North American Auto-Pact enabled imports between the US and Canada to be tax-free so Canadians now have I gather local-assembly and imported vehicles, though looking back there were always imported US-built vehicles as often wagons and other specialist versions were not assembled in Canada but they had that dreaded import duty slapped on top to increase the showroom price.

In the UK we have lhd cars as some only come with wrong-side drive, such as Corvettes, but street-sweeper trucks are either lhd or dual-control.


* From memory the Canadian plants produced rhd variants for those Provinces that drove on the left.