We used to make things in this country. #278: Telephones

Merged with Telus in 1999.

Merged into the Federal Telephone & Telegraph Co. of Palo Alto, California in 1910.  Bridgeburg itself is gone, merged into Fort Erie in 1932.

Although only in operation between 1908 and 1912, the company made thousands of telephone sets.  Today, its former factory houses the Waterford Antiques Market.

Ultimately became Nortel, which failed in 2009.  The crash left 60,000 Canadian workers without jobs and, in many cases, without pensions.

The Brockville factory opened in 1922, and began assembling telephones in 1935.  The head office was moved there from Montreal in 1948.  At its peak, it employed 1000 people.  The end came in 1996 when the plant closed, putting 340 people out of work.  The huge factory was demolished in 2008.