What will Kelowna's newest snow blower be named?
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/City of Kelowna
January 06, 2023 - 6:00 AM
In a couple of weeks, voting will start on the best name for the City of Kelowna’s new mega-snow plow.
Kelowna's not the first Canadian city to get into the snow plow naming business. Calgary and Chatham-Kent, ON started back in 2021 and many other cities are now joining in the fun.
The top two names selected in Chatham-Kent in 2022 were Betty Whiteout and Ctrl Salt Delete.
READ MORE: Kelowna running naming contest for new mega snow blower
That city, of about 104,000, has around 100 snowplows so it started off with plans to name six of them in 2021.
“We became aware of it because of a community in the States,” Amy Wilcox, manager of Corporate Initiatives and Communications for Chatham-Kent told iNFOnews.ca. “One of our morning radio announcers mentioned it and said: ‘Wouldn’t that be fun to do?’ And we ran with it.”
After getting more than 1,000 nominations, the city decided to name a dozen plows, adding a thirteenth in honour of the radio announcer who suggested the contest. His name is Chris McLeod so the plow is called the McCleodinator.
Other top names that year included Anita Shovel, Gordie Plow, Blizzard of Oz, Darth Blader, Pillsbury Plowboy, Sled Zepplin and Buzz Ice-Clear. The top 12 also included Qunuk, an Inuit word for snowflake.
More than 5,300 people voted in Chatham-Kent in 2021.
In 2022, the contest was narrowed to six winners. In addition to the ones listed above, the top names included Flurrie Jenkins, Harry Plower, Edward Blizzardhands and Scoop Dogg.
“Once a plow’s been named it will continue to have that name,” Wilcox said. “Once the snow plow has been retired – it’s at the end of its lifecycle – that name will be retired unless it has some real true community significance and then that name might carry over.”
One that might fit the community significance criteria is Flurrie Jenkins. It commemorates baseball Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins who was raised in Chatham.
The City of Calgary, in a 2021 post, claims it’s the first municipality in Canada to name its snowplows. That contest, only open to school children, started that year with the winners being announced in February 2022.
It got 1,700 submissions with Plowy McPlowface, Mr. Plow and Frosty the Snowplow topping the list of favourites.
There were 78 Calgary snow plows given names in 2021. That list can be seen here.
Voting started Dec. 20, 2022 for the City of Hamilton’s first annual snow plow naming contest. It’s narrowed the list to 20 with plans to name 10 plows.
There are now numerous U.S. cities running snow plow naming contests.
In Kelowna, the contest is to name a new, huge snow blower.
The deadline for submissions is now past. Voting on a short-list of 10 finalists will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 3.
Go here for more information on the Kelowna effort.
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