At Pontiac in Canada, the initials GP did not stand for Grand Prix but for Grand Parisienne. Here’s a closer look at these unusual hybrids.
Here’s one thing we can say for sure about the production and sales operations of the Detroit automakers in Canada: It’s complicated. For example, the Pontiacs marketed by General Motors of Canada in the ’50s and ’60s were actually Pontiac/Chevrolet hybrids, with Pontiac exterior styling and Chevrolet chassis and drivetrains. They had their own model names, too, including Parisienne, its badge borrowed from a 1953 GM Motorama show car. In 1966, Pontiac of Canada introduced its own parallel to the USA’s sport-luxury model, the Grand Prix, calling it the Grand Parisienne.
1966 Pontiac Grand Parisienne Coupe
The ’66 Grand Parisienne used the same grilles, tail lamps, and front and rear end treatments as the Grand Prix, and also offered a sporty bucket-seat interior. But unlike the U.S. version, which was available only as a coupe, the Grand Parisienne was produced in both two-door and four-door hardtop body styles. Their Chevrolet small-block and big-block V8s, produced by GM’s McKinnon division in Canada, had their own Canadian Pontiac names, including Astro-Flash and Astro-Jet. And when the U.S. Grand Prix received hidden headlamps in 1967-68, the Grand Parisienne up North got them as well.
1967 Pontiac Grand Parisienne Station Wagon
In 1967 the Grand Parisienne line was expanded to include a station wagon. While these wagons were comparable to the USA’s big Pontiac wagons, like all Canadian full-sized Pontiacs of this generation they were built on Chevrolet’s two-inch shorter 119-in wheelbase. Available engines included a 427 CID Jet-Flash V8 with 385 hp, which of course was the big-block Chevrolet Turbo-Jet V8 working under an assumed name.
1968 Pontiac Grand Parisienne Sport Sedan
There was a Grand Parisienne in 1969 (below), but it no longer tracked along with the USA’s Grand Prix, which was moved over to the GM corporate intermediate platform that year. (See our 1969 Grand Prix feature here.) Body styles were limited to a Sport Coupe and a Sport Sedan. The hidden headlamps and other sport-luxury features were no more, so this final Grand Parisienne was more comparable to a U.S. Bonnevile. In these years, Pontiac dealers in Canada also marketed the Acadian and Beaumont, which were not Pontiacs, strictly speaking, but separate brands. But that’s another story. As we said, it’s complicated.
1969 Pontiac Grand Parisienne Coupe 
I’ve never understood the Canadian versions of American cars, which in GM and Chrysler’s versions were the cheap car given the body of the one series higher. You’d think the extra cost of having to do local market sub-models would negate a lot of the potential profitability.
Ford, by comparison, made sense. Due to the geographic distances between dealers, giving the Ford dealer a Mercury equivalent (and visa versa) made a lot of sense. Even if the cars during the Fifties looked like the designs that were dropped in the clay modeling process halfway thru development.
The strange Pontiac alignment was due to the fact that GM had Chevrolet engine and chassis manufacturing facilities in Canada but not for Pontiac, which had much smaller volume. Using Chevy hardware on Pontiacs allowed GM to save on import duties.
But why not make Chevys instead of Pontiacs? They still could have kept much of their alternate styling so that Canadians would feel they had a distinct native product. Given that Pontiac came late in the game for GM, they must have been selling Chevys there earlier. I know about the McLaughlin/Buick deal, did someone own the rights to sell Pontiacs exclusively?
US manufacturers had multiple dealer chains in Canada. Each dealer chain had a low priced car, whether it was Chevy, Pontiac (Pontiac styling on Chevy chassis), Ford, Meteor (different trim on Ford), Plymouth, or Dodge (Dodge front fenders and grille on Plymouth body}.
Growing up in Canada I was always aware that Canadians tended to buy the lower trim models of everything. When I moved to Los Angeles in 1969 I was stunned at all the “fancy” versions of cars Americans bought. Having said that, a friend of mines family had a Pontiac Parisienne and it was as glamorous as a Cadillac as far as I was concerned. In a sea of Biscaynes and Ford 500s, this looked like real luxury!
I’ve seen the Pontiac Acadian/Chevy II and Beaumont/Chevelle. Did they have a ponycar, and was it an ordinary Firebird or a unique Camaro?
No weird mashup pony cars. The US Canada Auto Pact of 1965 was designed to eliminate trade barriers while giving Canada a reasonable share of the total US Canada industry. After the pact went into effect, manufacturers took a few years to transition from mashups to product lines pretty similar to the US (tho trim levels, names, option packages etc might be special for Canada). With the 1965 pact in place, specialty products like the Mustang, Camaro, and Firebird could be imported directly from the US without being subject to significant tariffs.
We just had a regular Firebird. As far as I know it was identical to your Firebird. Don’t believe the stories you see online about our Firebirds having Chevy engines, that’s not true.
IIRC that was a lie to get Chevy engined Firebirds into Trans Am road racing.
Dad had a ‘64 Parisienne 4 door from 67 to 72. Big car, vinyl thread seat covers that were prickly as the threads broke, inline 6 cylinder and power glide. Replaced with Nova 4 door in 72.
It has been suggested that tha autopact of the mid sixties was to benefit Studebaker,which had left South Bend and was based in Hamilton, Ontario