Just made the $10 phone call. No. No. No. No. Those were the answers that I received to the four different ways I asked the question just to make sure.
Other answers: ALL Canadian Pontiacs had Chev drivetrains and chassis, and mostly Chev sheet metal - floor pan, roof, structure, etc. - with the outside sheet metal changed for styling purposes.
Reason for Canadian Pontiacs being built with Chev drivetrains and chassis: before Free Trade, GM Canada decided for economic reasons that the Chev chassis would be used for all Chev and Pontiac cars built in Canada. That way they didn't have to import Pontiac drivetrains and drive up the cost of manufacturing Pontiacs in Canada.
The first Firebirds that were actually built in Canada were 1993 models. They could be ordered with a small block Chev under the hood. So all Canadian built Firebirds could be ordered with Chev drivetrains, it only took a quarter century after the period in question for that to happen!
There: the facts from the Canadian Documentation Service. No "Canadian" first generation Firebirds. No mysterious "1000" cars out there somewhere.
So: the myth was a fabrication by racers to allow them to run Firebirds in the new Trans Am series with the proven Chev engine. They disguised Camaros with louvers and grilles to look like Firebirds. SCCA allowed them to run. T/G racing placed first in their inaugural race at Daytona in Feb. 1969, and with those results, they then convinced Pontiac to help - they put four guys on it. Pontiac itself had nothing to do with it until then. The SCCA had already given the OK.
The Special Projects team (as they were called) took over a year to come up with a competitive engine. In the meantime T/G continued to run Camaro engines in cars either bought as or disguised as Firebirds.
