BRITISH COLUMBIA

The first automobile arrived in Vancouver on September 24, 1899.  Despite this early start, no motor vehicle ordinances are known from any cities in the province prior to the relatively early introduction of provincial registration in 1904.  Undated porcelain plates are known from Victoria, likely from the 1912-13 period, which are discussed in further detail below.

Victoria (31,660)

The first automobile to be imported to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, was an Oldsmobile on May 24, 1902.  Any regulations in effect prior to this refer to horse-drawn vehicles, which we'll see, has significance, as described below.

A series of undated black-on-white porcelain plates #1 to #200 is known with the official seal of the city and the abbreviation "LIC. VEH.", undoubtedly standing for "Licensed Vehicle".  Despite plate #6 of this series being temporarily awarded a Guinness World Record certificate in 2010 for being issued in 1884 to a hackney carriage, several pieces of circumstantial evidence point to a more plausible issue date of 1912.

The City Council adopted Bylaw #100, the "Hack Regulation Bylaw", on October 17, 1883, which stipulates that operators of hackney carriages (horse-drawn, of course) are to register with the city and display "two badges on which shall be inscribed the number of the license, and before the vehicle shall be so used the smaller of such badges shall be affixed and displayed on a conspicuous place inside the vehicle, and the other shall be affixed and displayed on a conspicuous place on the outside of the vehicle."  Another Bylaw, #362, entitled the "Hired Vehicles Bylaw", was passed on March 8, 1901, but only makes references to fee regulation and stand locations.  The registration requirement continued, but only a single "metallic badge bearing the number under which such vehicle is registered" was now to be "affixed to some conspicuous part" of the exterior of the vehicle.  Newspaper articles confirm that Hack numbers were up to #228 as of September 4, 1901.

The Bylaw most closely resembling known plates and badges is #1313, "A By-Law Regulating Hired and Other Vehicles", passed on July 22, 1912.  This ordinance stipulated a $5 annual fee, with the registration year set as January 1 to December 31.  It also required all hire vehicles, now including automobiles, to display a rear "white enameled plate of a size not less than six by four inches, exhibiting said number in blue or black figures not less than three inches in height and the City Coat of Arms above said number."  A new provision was the requirement that vehicle operators also be licensed and to carry on their person a city-issued "elliptical metal enameled badge 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and the letters shall be not less than 3/4 inches in height, and shall be blue or black on a light ground, and held by a small strap through the buttonhole."  Exactly such a porcelain badge is known, a vertical oval in black on white, with the words "VICTORIA/CITY" above the number 238 above the words "DRIVER'S/LICENSE.".  A horizontal slot at the top holds a leather strap which had been buckled to the driver's uniform.  The license fee was $5, the license year being January 1 to December 31, with renewals set at $2.

The plates' size (5" x 8"), design, bolt slot location, grommets, and vertical dividing lines are identical to British Columbia 1913 motorcycle plates, which it would be hard to believe could match so well if truly manufactured 28 years earlier in 1884.  There is little doubt that the same company, McClary Manufacturing Co. of London, Ontario, which is known to have produced all British Columbia 1913 plates, also made the Victoria plates and badges.  Further research is being continued to ascertain precisely when these plates were issued.