British Columbia License Plates

Having spent most of my summer at Expo, I always assume that everybody is as familiar with it as I. However, for those of you who were not there, the World Exposition was held in Vancouver from May 2 until October 13, 1986. Expo's theme was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion - World in Touch", and coincided with Vancouver's centennial.

Needless to say, with a theme related to Transportation, there was invariably going to be some sort of license plate tie-in.

Passenger Decals

Souvenir Plates

One of the more interesting sets of plates to emerge from the Fair are those associated with the NWT Pavilion. There are, effectively, two different types of plate sets:

NWT Pavilion Plates

The first are those actually used on official vehicles associated with the Pavilion and which display a single digit, such as the "EXPO 5" plate shown above. The second, more common type are the "EXPO 86" plates which were either produced as samples or souvenirs (I am not sure which).

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Another type of plate set used within the fairgrounds are those associated with the "Concours d'Elegance". Again, there are effectively two different types of plate :

Concours d'Elegance Plates
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What is a Concours d'Elegance you ask?

Well, it derives from French and means a "competition of elegance" and dates to 17th Century French aristocracy who paraded horse-drawn carriages in the parks of Paris during Summer weekends and holidays. Over time, carriages became horseless and the gatherings became a competition among automobile owners to be judged on the appearance of their automobiles

Unfortunately, I do not know too much about the competition held at Expo, but the plates are sure neat!

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Promotional Plates

UFO-H2O

Anyone who was a kid during Expo surely remembers the water park with UFO-H2O as the main centerpiece.

Although I can't remember anymore, apparently the water park was in a sunken plaza adjacent to the Ontario Pavilion.

"The design was that of a spaceship piloted by a whimsical green Martian that landed in a fantasy landscape of jumping waters. A new process at the time saw the water treated so that air and impurities were removed. The resulting stronger bond between the water molecules allowed designers to make the water dance in unusual ways few people had seen before" (it is amazing what you kind find on the internet these days).

After Expo concluded, a big auction was held and basically everything associated with the Fair was sold off (for years after I can remember seeing the wire and concrete benches up in Whistler).

While the big stuff, such as the hockey stick in Duncan, were easy to pick out, the fate of UFO-H2O always remained a mystery (at least to me).

Well, weren't we here at BCpl8s.ca surprised when one of our intrepid plate spotters sent in the following images in early 2009:

Turns out the old green fellow was shipped off to Kitimat after the Fair and, 24 years later, has clearly seen better days.

What cracked me up most about UFO-H2O was that the Socreds had been so hell-bent in the lead-up to Expo to get all the blue-and-white 1979 base plates off the roads and replaced with plates sporting the new "Flag" logo they were re-branding the province with (and which, incidentally, bore an uncanny resemblance to their own political party logo), yet here was a prominent attraction within the Expo site sporting an oversized representation of the dull 1979 base! Oh, how I still laugh over that ...