‘Peter Parka, Plowy McPlowface’: Edmonton Residents Charmed By City’s Punny Plow Names

A snow plow clears a section of road in Ottawa on Jan. 9, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The Big Leplowski could be coming to an Edmonton street the next time a blizzard hits the city.

The Big Leplowski is just one of 15 city plows that had punny names bestowed on them last year as part of Edmonton’s ‘Name a Plow’ contest. The contest encouraged residents to come up with humorous names for the city’s snow plows.

Despite the top 15 names being announced last January, a number of city residents took to the website Reddit this winter to express their surprise and delight that Edmonton has given memorable monikers to a fleet of its plows.

“It’s my first winter living in Edmonton,” the original poster said on the city’s subreddit page. “It made me happy to discover that some of the snow plows have names.”

The poster included a screenshot of a live snow and ice control map of the city, showing snow plows nicknamed Peter Parka, Plowy McPlowface, Blizzard Wizard, and Fast and Flurrious out clearing the streets. The post has been upvoted 2,000 times.

“I’ve lived here over 10 years and am just finding this out. Hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh tonight,” one user replied.

“This is my 23rd winter in Edmonton and I also just found this out,” another user wrote.

The idea to name plows in the city fleet was dreamed up in 2022. But rather than make the names up themselves, the city decided to leave the task up to the public by launching a naming contest.

The winners were announced in January of 2023 after receiving 2,157 responses from residents who took on the creative challenge.

“We appreciate the incredible enthusiasm for this contest, and are very excited to display the winning names on plows throughout the city,” Mark Beare, Edmonton’s director of infrastructure operations said in a press release at the time. “Thank you to everyone who submitted such creative and unique ideas.”