On
June 2, 2004, the Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell,
and Solicitor General Rich Coleman announced a new series
of special BC license plates for veterans that honours the
men and women who served Canada "by defending freedom
and preserving peace." The
release of the plates was timed to coincide with the 60th
anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe by Allied troops
during World War 2, and were to be made available to motorists
beginning on 6 June 2004 through ICBC's Autoplan network. |
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| British
Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell (right) with Lt.-Col.
Archie Steacy (left), president of the BC Veterans
Commemorative Association, on the front steps of the
Legislature in Victoria launching the new series of
licence plates honouring veterans in BC for their
service to Canada. |
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The
design of the plates feature a powder blue background, with
a partial image of the national war memorial in Ottawa to
the left of the plate overlayed with a symbolic red poppy.
The numbering on the plates is to be black and the
"Beautiful" slogan that has graced all passenger
plates issued since 1964 has been dropped in favour of the
word "VETERAN" at top of the plate. |
Initially
made available only for passenger vehicles, the serial for
the series started at 000-VAA and, unlike the convoluted
sequence associated with the serial used on the standard
Flag Graphic base, will progress through to 999-VAX before
rolling over to 000-VBA (whereas the Flag Graphic would
have rolled-over at 999-VAK to 000-VBA). The 000-VAA
series would otherwise have been tentatively scheduled for
release in 2010 as part of the thirteenth million set of
Flag Graphics (i.e. 000-LAA to 999-XKK). It remains
unknown how many plate have been set aside for this series
as it will likely run for decades, but assuming that all
of the "V"s have been blocked out for use on Veteran
plates, this leaves approximately 400,000 plates. |
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| VETERAN PASSENGER PLATE
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VETERAN TRUCK PLATE |
VETERAN
MOTORCYCLE PLATE
(REPRESENTATION) |
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Shortly
before Remembrance Day 2004 (November 11) the province announced
that the program would be expanded to include Motorcycles,
Pick-up Trucks and Motor-homes. Truck plates will employ
the same format as the current Truck passenger base with
the suffixes LV, LX and LW (and potentially LY as this will
mark the end of the Truck serial prior to it being reversed
with the letters forming the prefix). The Veterans Motorcycle
Plate will employ a "V" prefix - which should
allow for 99,999 cycle plate to be issued (I doubt this
series will ever be exhausted). |
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Shown
at left: David McCutcheon of ICBC and Joyce Murray
MLA unveil the new B.C. Veteran Licence Plate. |
As it turns out,
the introduction of the Veteran plate has marked an important
shift in the approach of the provincial government towards
license plates. As surrounding US States such Washington,
Oregon and Idaho began to introduce a plethora of optional
specialty plates in the 1990s, BC motorists remained stuck
with either the standard Flag Graphic passenger base, or
the mountain-and-sea graphic associated with the personalised
base (originally introduced in 1980) - which was not much
of choice really! The Veteran plate changes all of
this and became the first specialty plate issued in BC and
has now been followed by the specialty Olympic plate (which
is available to all motorists). As far as this
writer is aware, the BC Veteran plate was also the first
of its kind in Canada to use a "photo"
(although Saskatchewan has now come out with its own "photo"
Veteran license plate - copy-cats!). |
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| A
Political Photo Opportunity! |
Every Member
of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) maintains a web site
and invariably contacts their constituents directly through
the mail out of a newsletter highlighting their accomplishments
during the most recent sitting of the Assembly. The
unveiling of the Veteran plate was a unique opportunity
for many of the (then) 74 member Liberal caucus to pose
with the Premier and the new plate, and pictures started
showing up on the web shortly after the announcement of
the plate. Is body language important? Can
you spot who Gordon Campbell is not touching versus who
gets the two handed grab?
To
see a bona fide Veterans Plate "Photo Op," Click
Here!
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| Designing
the Plate |
The
first province to issue a Veteran licence plate was Nova
Scotia in 2002, and within the span of about two years all
of the other provinces and territories had followed suit.
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To
see how BC's Veteran plate stacks up against similar
plates from across Canada, Click
Here! |
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In
British Columbia, the drive to create a Veteran's plate
was spearheaded by the British Columbia Veterans Commemorative
Association (BCVCA) under Lt.Col (Ret’d) Archie M.
Steacy, and Veterans Affairs Canada Pacific Region (VACPR)
under Sharel Duplessis. Following a meeting that was
held in early 2004 in which the Premier, Gordon Campbell,
and Solicitor General, Rich Coleman, met with Steacy and
Duplessis to discuss the possibility of proceeding with
such an initiative, the concept of a Veteran's plate "was
embraced without hesitation and ... officially sanctioned
by the B.C. Government." |
A
Working Group was subsequently established by the Premier
with representation from BCVCA, VACPR and the Insurance
Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), and was charged
with the task of recommending a design for the plate. According
to Sharel Duplessis, "all members of the Working Committee
offered suggestions and submitted these to the ICBC design
team. Through collaborative effort, two final designs were
chosen for consideration by the Working Committee." |
While
the design of the plate that was not chosen has yet to come
to this writer's attention, the story behind the one we
have all become familiar with (and which is plastered all
over this particular web page) is a very interesting one.
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Apparently,
the internal ICBC department charged with creating a plate
out of the Working Committee's suggestions was given a timeframe
of only two months in which to come up with a design. The
initial designs were deemed to be unsatisfactory and, as
time ticked away, the team creating the plate could not
come up with a suitable design. Things got to the
point that two days before a deadline, one of the team members
phoned Veterans Affairs in Ottawa to request that someone
take some high quality digital photos of the National War
Memorial. As one would expect to happen in these circumstances,
the photos provided by Veterans Affairs did not turn out
as expected. |
So,
another design team member went surfing on the Internet
and found a "striking image" on what has been
stated to be the National War Memorial web site. In the
true spirit of any creative process, this picture was duly
expropriated for the task at hand, cropped; altered to extend
the sky; and overlaid with a poppy, Canadian flag and the
words "British Columbia" and "Veteran"
and, voila - an instant license plate! |
Following
some intrepid sleuthing by this writer, it is believed that
the image that served as the inspiration for the Veteran
plate's design has been tracked down (and it did not
come from the Veterans Affairs web site!):
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As can be seen
in this series of photos, the photo on the Veteran's plate
comes from a much larger image. The
photo at left is a partial shot of the War Memorial and
shows the 22 bronze figures advancing through the archway
of the monument - figures which represent the "Great
Response" of Canadians who served during the First
World War. The middle image is a close-up of the first
three figures, while the image at right is how the middle
scene was worked into the license plate.
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| Eligibility |
The
Veterans plate is a "restricted optional plate"
(in license plate lingo), which means an applicant is required
to have their
status as a "veteran" confirmed by one of the
Veterans associations recognized by the provincial government,
including the British Columbia Veterans Commemorative Association
- BC/Yukon Command; The Royal Canadian Legion; or the Canadian
Peacekeeping Veterans Association. |
Essentially,
a "veteran" is defined by ICBC as someone who
served during wartime; in a post-war capacity; or
during a NATO or UN operation, including members of the
RCMP and Municipal Police. Once eligibility is
determined, the plate is basically free, apart from a $5
administration fee.
In introducing the plates, the Solicitor General stated
that "there are
some 80,000 veterans in this province and we hope that many
of them will order the plates and display them proudly on
their vehicles.” |
The
Veteran plate program is not managed by the BC Government
or ICBC, but is sustained by a "Herculean" volunteer
effort of Veterans "who meet every week to review applications,
verify eligibility documentation and authorize approval
for final issuing of a [plate]. The age of these Veteran
volunteers ranges from 65-84." |
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| 30,000th
Plate Issued |
At
a special ceremony with Canadian veterans on November 11,
2006, Premier Gordon Campbell presented the 30,000 British
Columbia Veteran Licence Plate to 81-year-old Anna Allman,
who served as a Lance Corporal in the Canadian Women's Army
Corps from 1944 to 1945. |
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| Premier
Campbell & Anna Allman |
Sealing
the exchange with a hand shake... |
Wait!
Gordon has kept one, quickly, someone check his Vancouver
office |
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What
makes this such a frustrating game to play is that ICBC
can essentially designate any plate it wants as representing
the "30,000" of the series. Sequentially
speaking, "300-VBG" is actually the 27,300 plate
in the passenger series, but of course the Veteran base
is also issued for trucks and motorcycles. I
am assuming, therefore, that when all of these types are
considered, then possibly 30,000 Veteran plates have been
issued. However, I still have to question if
"300-VBG" was really the 30,000 plate? |
The reader
is first asked to consider that in February 2007, the
highest numbered Veteran plate spotted on the road was
in "VBD" range, while at the time of writing
(June 2007) the highest plate spotted was "490-VBG"
which would seem to indicate that only 190 Veteran passenger
plates have been issued across the province since Ms Allman
received hers in November 2006?
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Bear
in mind that Veteran plates aren't issued in the same way
as other plate types (where each Autoplan broker is given
a stock from which to work), but are sent out individually
from a central distribution point (similar to the way in
which the personalised plates are issued). If this
rate of issuance for 2007 is correct, then I would suggest
that there has been a precipitous drop in demand compared
to the first two years of the program, indicating that the
pool of Veteran's willing to display these plates has potentially
been tapped with only incremental growth likely to occur
in the coming years. |
| Alternately,
it is possible that "300-VBG" was issued out of
sequence (maybe grossly out of sequence) due to the possible
symbolism of the serial - the 30,000 plate starting with the
number "300"? However, if there is significance
to the suffix of "BG", it totally escapes me? |
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| The
Mystery of Plate No. 1, Solved? |
Since
1970, and the introduction of the first alpha-numeric plates,
there has always been a nagging uncertainty for collector's
as to what constitutes the first plate in a series. This
stems from a law in place at that time which stipulated
that zero was an invalid number and, therefore, no plates
could be legally issued with a combination of "000". This
was subsequently amended, but ICBC has maintained a practice
of sometimes holding back the first plate in a series for
promotional purposes (i.e. see the recent Olympic plate). |
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Despite the
apparent answer to this question provided by the picture
of Archie Steacy (at left) with plate "001-VAA"
(my advice Archie, weld that plate to your car!), there
remains a lingering question as to the fate of plate "000-VAA"?
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Although
it is understood that there is some sort of impasse between
ICBC and the volunteer Veterans that administer the plate
program which is preventing "Sample" plates being
made available to the public, it is thought that were such
plates to be offered, they would be stamped with the word
"SAMPLE"
(as is the practice with the standard passenger plate),
and would not display "000-VAA". |
Accordingly,
"000-VAA" must be seen to be a valid plate number
for registration purposes, but where is it? Some
tantalizing clues have surfaced over the past couple of
years, the most common of which has been the appearance
of a "000-VAA" plate on a vintage military jeep
that participated in the unveiling ceremony for the Veteran
plate in 2004 (see images below). This same jeep
has also been known to make appearances at Victoria Day
Parade's on the Island, where many of the spotting's have
occurred. |
Unfortunately
(and as can be seen in the third of the three images below),
this is not the valid registration number for the vehicle
- which belongs to a Collector plate (B01-091). Interestingly,
whoever maintains the Jeep was not aware of the difference
between the status of the two plates as it would appear
that a registration decal was applied to the Veteran plate
and subsequently scrapped off - leaving a rough patch in
the decal box. |
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| Plate
"000-VAA" as displayed on the Jeep at the
unveiling ceremony in 2004. |
The
Jeep at the 2007 Victoria Day Parade on Vancouver
Island. |
A
close-up of the Jeep's two plates, note the scratching
on the Veteran. |
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But
whither the other plate from the set? This remained
one of the enduring myths of British Columbia plate history
until the duplicity of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) news crew in abetting the ransacking of the Office
of the Premier and Cabinet in downtown Vancouver on May
22, 2007, shed some light on the matter. As the
white-bread, middle-class, suburban university student protestors
overturned the office in the name of the Downtown Eastside,
the camera panned across the mayhem and picked up an image
of the missing "000-VAA" plate - nicely mounted
on a wood frame (no less) and on display in the waiting
room. |
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I
hope somebody frisked that fellow in the lighter
blue jacket and jeans on his way out as it would
appear that he is about to reach for the coveted
Veteran plate No. "000-VAA" displayed
on the coffee table directly in front of him (it
is sitting just behind the football in the image
at left).
Mind
you, nothing has turned up on eBay yet, so I am
thinking that he probably didn't get away with it!
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There
is no word at this time as to the status of the plate, given
the apparent sturdiness of the wood mount it is attached
to, one can only assume that it made through the ordeal
safely. |
It
would seem, therefore, that following the unveiling of the
Veteran plate in June 2004, the Jeep drove off with one
of the "000-VAA" plates, while the Premier obtained
the other and added it to the trophy corner of his downtown
Vancouver office. Consequently, while not a sample,
"000-VAA" is also not for use. So, the mystery
is solved, "001-VAA" is the first plate of the
series and it belongs to Archie Steacy. |
Somebody
probably needs to inform the owner of that vintage military
jeep that it is an offence under Section 318.13(1)(c) of
the Motor Vehicle Act to drive a motor vehicle
"that has displayed on it a number plate other than
those issued or designated by the Insurance Corporation
of British Columbia or otherwise prescribed to be displayed
on that motor vehicle ... for the current licence year of
that motor vehicle." I
am thinking that I may just have to make a citizen's seizure
should I come across this culprit and hold the other "000-VAA"
plate until such time as I receive satisfactory instructions
from ICBC as to its proper disposal! |
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| 2004
Plate of the Year? |
Every
year the Automobile License Plate Collector's Association
(ALPCA) holds a survey amongst its membership to determine
the Plate of the Year. In 2004, the BC Veteran's plate was
nominated for this award, and was up against plates from
some heavy-weight states such as Florida (General Issue
- "MyFlorida.com") and Ohio (General Issue - "Birthplace
of Aviation"). To see the other nominated plates,
just Click
Here! |
Despite
the best lobbying efforts by BC collectors, the Veteran's
plate finished a respectable fourth to the winning plate
issued by Oklahoma (Special Issue - "State Parks").
All of the
nominated plates and their position are listed as follows: |
1st - Oklahoma
"State Parks"
(2,663 points) |
2nd - Maryland
"Treasure the Chesapeake"
(1,892 points) |
3rd - North Carolina
"Blue Ridge Parkway"
(1,703 points) |
4th - British Columbia
"Veteran"
(1,133 points) |
5th - Georgia
"General Issue"
(1,058 points) |
6th - Alaska
"General Issue"
(847 points) |
7th - Ohio
"General Issue"
(692 points) |
8th - Tennessee
"Children's Hospital"
(570 points) |
9th - Florida
"General Issue"
(538 points) |
10th - Ontario
"Toronto Blue Jays"
(115 points) |
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I
am still rather dumbfounded that North Carolina was able
to place third ahead of the BC Veteran plate (although the
State does have double the number of plate collectors, and
therefore votes)! Nevertheless, if any consolation
can be drawn from this episode it is that the Toronto (re:
Ontario) plate got trounced, and deservedly so. The
last Canadian plate to win the award was Manitoba in 1997,
so hopefully we will have better luck in 2007 with the BC
Olympic Winter Games plate, stay tuned ... |
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| "Veteran" or "Military" License Plate? |
One June 29, 2012, the provincial government announced that the Veteran licence plate program was being expanded to include currently serving members of the Canadian Forces, and that this would bring "BC in line with other provinces that offer veteran's licence plates active Canadian Forces members" (Click Here for official news release). |
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We here at BCpl8s.ca can't help but wonder if this creates a misoner in relation to the title of these plates as "Veteran" and if the more appropriate title would not be "Military" plates (as "Veteran" intones someone who has previously served in the armed forces"? |
One of the more interesting aspects of this news announcement was that, since the 30,000th plate was issued to Anna Allman on November 11, 2006, only a further 9,000 plates have been issued in the intervening six years. It will be interesting to see if these new eligibility criteria create a spike in new "Veteran" plates being issued. |
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| Videos |
A
sign of the digital times, the BC Government web site hosts
a section devoted to promoting the Premier's activities,
otherwise known as the "Media Gallery". This is
actually one of my favourite hunting grounds (my secret
is now out!) and contains lots of great promotional stuff,
including the two videos linked below: |
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| Series |
| Passenger
|
| 2004 |
|
2006 |
2007 |
| 2008 |
2009 |
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| Truck |
| 2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
| 2008 |
2009 |
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| Timing
and Sequence |
It is thought that the entire bloc of "V" plates (i.e. VAA - VXX) has been reserved for the Veteran base. This represents a bloc of approximately 400,000 plates, and with only 31,000 passenger plates having been issued as of January 2010, and the annual number of plates being assigned now equaling about 1,000/year, it is estimated that the Corporation has a sufficient number of combinations for the next 369 years. |
| Plate
No. Spotted: |
Date: |
| 124-VBG |
March
2007 |
| 032-VBH |
August
2007 |
| 053-VBJ |
April
2008 |
| 000-VBK |
unknown |
| 911-VBL |
October
2009 |
| 066-VBM |
July
2010 |
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