An item for licence plate collectors

I've liked licence plates ever since I was a kid.  I have a small collection.  The look of plates from different provinces and states has always amused me.  Licence plates of course serve the basic purposes for vehicle registration and law enforcement, but they're also a major identifier and advertising piece for whichever jurisdiction issues them.  They're also a product of prison labour in most places in North America.  For several decades, Ontario's licence plates were made by convicts at the provincial prison in Millbrook, south of Peterborough.  When that facility closed, production was moved to the new prison in Lindsay. 

For years, Ontario licence plates had to be replaced yearly or even quarterly, depending on the class of vehicle or the option chosen by the vehicle owner.  The plates were a different colour each year or quarter.  In 1972, the provincial government introduced a licence plate for cars that could be renewed each year or two years using a sticker that expired on the vehicle owner's birthday.  Ontario uses the same system to this day with the same blue and white colour scheme with a crown in the middle.  The design has only been changed once, in 1994 with a more stylized and reflective appearance.  Unfortunately, the current design is much less durable.  The "Yours to Discover" slogan Ontario uses for tourism, and on its licence plates did not appear until sometime later in the 1970's.  Instead, the provincial government took an environmental approach in 1973 in an attempt to discourage highway littering with the message "Keep it beautiful" underneath Ontario and the issued number on the licence plate.  I've seen prototypes of these plates on collector websites and they nearly featured "Province of opportunity," which was the Ontario government's promotional slogan at the time.  These were good years economically and socially for the province so it was not really false advertising for the government to adopt this slogan.  However, Keep it Beautiful also made sense given the increased sensitivity to environmental issues during the early 1970's and the activist approach to those issues the government was taking through addressing air pollution, waste and littering control, and establishing the Ministry of the Environment.  I remember when a lot of these licence plates were still on cars.  In fact, somewhere in a closet is the pair that was last on my parent's 1978 Chrysler LeBaron.  A late great aunt of mine kept her 1973 Keep it Beautiful plates on her car until the early 2000's.  In the photo below, Premier William G. Davis (PC, Brampton) attaches the first Keep it Beautiful licence plate to his own car (which looks like a 1972 Chrysler) in the parking lot of the Parliament Buildings at Queen's Park in Toronto.  The Hon. Gordon Carton, Minister of Transportation and Communications (PC, Armourdale) is at the Premier's left, and on his right is The Hon. James Auld, Minister of the Environment (PC, Leeds-Grenville).

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

1973 was also the first year Ontario drivers could get a personalized licence plate, but only based on the first three letters in the number.  The more common personalized plates with words or abbreviated phrases came later.  Premier Davis ostensibly chose "ONT-001."  Around the same time, the Prime Minister's limousine in Ottawa received a plate reading "CAN-001."  Some MPP's had "MPP" plates.

Photo from;
Archives of Ontario

RG 3-62 Premier William G. Davis

Accession 18373

Barcode D359682

Press Clippings, NOV-DEC, 1972

The Globe and Mail (Toronto); Nov. 30, 1972