Winnipeg is asking its residents to put on their thinking caps and suggest names for the city’s snowplows.
The city launched its Name that Plow! competition on Nov. 20 in a bid to provide names for 12 loaders and grading machines operated by the city.
“The loaders and graders are part of a hardworking group of heavy equipment that keep people moving on our streets every winter,” the city said in an online post announcing the competition. “We’re looking for kids (or kids at heart) to submit individual names. We'll pick our Top 30 and get Winnipeggers to vote on the 12 best.”
The city is also in search of names for its smaller pathway-clearing equipment and is encouraging school classrooms to present their most creative ideas for this set of human-powered plows.
Submissions can be made online until Dec. 5.
The top 30 names will be selected in the three categories on Dec. 8 and Winnipeggers will have the opportunity to vote for their favourites until Dec. 31.
The official plow names will be announced on Jan. 7 and those behind the 12 winning entries will receive invitations to a special announcement scheduled for on or around Jan. 13, during which custom name plates will be given to each winner as a memento of their achievement, the city said. The winning classroom entry for the push plows will receive a pizza party at City Hall with Mayor Scott Gillingham.
Other cities across Canada have already run similar contests to allow their residents choose names for their snowplows.
Edmonton ran a ‘Name a Plow’ contest in 2022 and the winning names were announced in January of 2023 after receiving 2,157 entries from residents who took on the creative challenge.
The contest resulted in 15 plows with names like Peter Parka, Plowy McPlowface, Blizzard Wizard, and Fast and Flurrious clearing the streets the following year.
Calgary launched a similar contest in 2021, asking students at local schools to come up with names for its 78 plows. The city received nearly 1,700 submissions.
Plows bearing the names Gritty Gritty Bang Bang, Snowy McSnow Face, Blizzard of Oz, and Sled Zepplin had hit city streets by the following winter.
Chatham-Kent, in southwestern Ontario, also launched a contest in 2021. The municipality originally planned to name six of its snow plows but received so many submissions, the town decided to expand naming to 13 vehicles. It ran similar contests in 2022 and 2023.
Some of the names from 2021 were Gordie Plow, Pillsbury Plowboy, and Sleetwood Mac, while 2022 saw Betty Whiteout and Edward Blizzardhands added to the fleet. The 2023 contest brought names like Skip the Ditches, Austin Plowers, and Taylor Drift to the mix.
