British Columbia Consular License Plates

The Consular Corps in British Columbia is based primarily in Vancouver and is the official body comprising all Consular Officers resident in the Province of British Columbia. Currently the number of countries represented by the Corps in B.C. stands at seventy-one. Consular Officers; who are comprised of Consuls General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and Consular Agents, represent and promote their country's interests; from assisting nationals, promoting trade, to issuing passports and visas, within the province.

Since 1967, members of the Consular Corps have also had the option of obtaining special CONSUL license plates. At that time, a number of other provinces had already been issuing such plates since the 1950s. Most notably, Ontario and Quebec due to the location of many foreign embassies in and around the national capitol region.

For forty years, British Columbia's Consular plates consisted of the word "CONSUL" stamped as a de facto prefix, followed by three characters. The template used for the 1967 plates, issued to an estimated 70 individuals that year, have changed little over the years. The colours, slogan and validation of CONSUL plates have always remained consistent with those of passenger plates. The three digit suffix was employed from the plate's inception until the late 1990s, when an A00 - A99 format began to be seen. This 1967 issue was also notable as it commenced in the "500 bracket" in order to avoid any squabbles over who had the best number. Accordingly, the first number in this series was 501, with all subsequent plates being issued in sequential order. By the very fact that there are currently CONSUL plates that exist below the 500 suffix indicated that this tradition was not followed in subsequent years.

1967 - 1972: date stamped

Issuing Statistics

1967:	unknown
1968:	unknown
1969:	501 to 700
1970:	501 to 675
1971:	unknown

1971

1973 - 1978: decaled

1973

1974

1975

Issuing Statistics

1973:	101 to 500
1977:	501 to 600

1979 - 1986

1980

Issuing Statistics

1979:	002 to 100
	601 to 999

1983

1986 - 2001: Flag Graphic

Issuing Statistics

1985:	101 to 500
1991:	501 to 999

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2001 - 2007

2002

2003

2004

Issuing Statistics

2001:	A01 to D99*
* unconfirmed

2005

2006

2007

2008

Following seven years of hard discussions with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, ICBC released a new series Consular license plates in 2007.

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As is readily evident from the images shown above and below, the plate displays a new serial; AA-000A, and is white on a red background with BRITISH COLUMBIA displayed along the top centre (with no "Beautiful" or "Best Place on Earth" slogan), and with the new government logo serving as the separator. Similar to the Olympic base plate introduced in 2007, the Consular plate has been stamped with a divided decal box making it easier for motorists to figure out where they are suppose to affix their date decals. It is thought that the old Flag base Consul plates did not extend into the "D00" range (with the highest spotted being C85).

The plate has been divided into 5 categories:

Image required	DL-000A:
	Diplomat-level representatives and their dependents or International Organizations;
	CC-000A:
	Career Consular Officers – level foreign representatives and their dependents or Consular Post where headed by a Career Officer;
	HC-000A:
	Honorary Consular Officers - level foreign representatives or a Consular Post where headed by Honorary Consular;
	CS-000A:
	Aadministrative, technical and service level foreign representatives and their dependents; and
	SR-000A:
	Foreign officials and their dependents from Offices of Political Subdivisions of Foreign State and from other Office and for their Offices.

2007-present: Best Place on Earth
2007	2008	2009	2010
2011	2012	2013	2014

Sources

Province of British Columbia, Consular Corps, http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/consular/consular.htm, (October 28, 2001)

Dan Howlett, "Decoding British Columbia License Plates", http://www.kasumirecords.com/bcplates/index.htm (Ocotber 29, 2001)

Vancouver Province Newspaper

Victoria Colonist Newspaper