Alberta’s newest licence plate can make driving your vehicle an act of remembrance.
Unveiled in July, this plate is not part of the failed program to redesign Alberta’s provincial licence plate; instead, it’s a stand-alone plate designed to recognize Alberta soldiers and to raise funds for the Support Our Troops program, a Canadian Forces charity.
The licence plate features Fallen Comrades PPCLI, a painting by Ontario artist Silvia Pecota of a member of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry (PPCLI), head bowed, hands draped over the butt of a rifle, standing next to a Canadian flag flying at half-mast. The silhouetted soldier faces four rifles, each of which is standing upright with a helmet hanging from the stock.
The rifles and helmets are those of the first Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan: Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pvt. Nathan Smith, Pvt. Richard Green, all of whom were in their 20s and served together in A-Company of the Edmonton-based 3rd Battalion of the PPCLI.
The four soldiers were killed at Tarnak Farms, a former Al Qaeda base in April of 2002 when an American F-16 fighter pilot, who believed he was being attacked, dropped a 500-pound bomb on the Patricia’s position as they conducted a live-fire training exercise.
During an interview from her home in Toronto, Pecota said she created the mixed-media painting (a digital composite of a photograph and an oil painting) while working for the Toronto Sun. The image first appeared on the cover of the Sun to coincide with the memorial service held for the four Patricia’s killed at Tarnak Farms.
The image itself, she added, has spread widely throughout Canada and the U.S. Pecota has seen it airbrushed onto motorcycles and appear as tattoos.
In each case, she said, it is an honour to see it used in all of its iterations, including having Service Alberta and the Canadian Armed Forces Morale and Welfare Services choose it for the licence plate fundraiser.
“It really is an honour,” she said. “We all have our mission in life and if I can actually leave something, if I can touch the hearts, even if nobody knows it’s me, to me it’s more important that it is the artwork.
“I think the artist’s mission, at the end of your life, is if you have left something behind that people recognize more than your name, it’s got some extra air miles. In that sense, to know that the work is recognized and that it moves people, it gives an artist satisfaction.”
The PPCLI celebrated its centennial anniversary this summer, but that and the choice of the image featuring the Patricias is a happy coincidence, according to Jessica Johnson, a Service Alberta representative.
“The previous minister (of Service Alberta) made a commitment to do this back in November. He talked about the commitment and wanting to support our troops and this had such support from Albertans. A lot of people have been anticipating this,” said Johnson.
“It’s not linked to the 100th anniversary of the PPCLI, but just great timing,” she said. “(Pecota) had done this piece to commemorate them (the four Patricias) and it was certainly very meaningful to the Canadian Armed Forces and it would be very much so to Albertans and that is how we came upon the decision.”
Montreal businessman Andrew Hamilton Gault founded the PPCLI on Aug. 3, 1914 to serve under British command at the start of the First World War. The Patricias were later transferred to Canadian command.
Fallen Comrades PPCLI is part of a series of similar pieces that Pecota has completed that honours Canadian soldiers killed in combat, including Afghanistan and the Second World War. Along with her work to commemorate the fallen, she also creates historical images documenting the War of 1812 and the First and Second World Wars.
Many of these images will appear in a book and an exhibition in November 2015.
The Support Our Troops licence plate, meanwhile is available at all Alberta Registry outlets, including the Alberta Motor Association, for a $75 fee. Of that, $55 goes to the Support Our Troops program, administered by the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services.
Lt. Michčle Tremblay, a CFMWS spokesperson, said funds raised by the licence plate program would be used in the delivery of programs and services that fall under the Support Our Troops umbrella, such as a wee-long camp for children of military families, Vacations for Vets, scholarships and bursaries and Operation Santa Claus.
“The Support Our Troops program has become the platform through which individual Canadians, community groups and corporate Canada can show their on-ongoing support for, and interest in, our men and women in uniform, and their families who stand beside them,” Tremblay wrote in an email.
Go to www.supportourtroops.ca for more information about the programs, services or offered through the Support Our Troops programs. Donations are also accepted through the website, as well.
