Dave Cotie wrote on 07/22/10 at 12:42:23:Good thought Doug, I will check it.
MTO does not require any "proof" of your call sign to get the plates, so I am not sure they are restricted, but still.
Hmm. When I got my ham plate, they asked to see my amateur radio licence. IIRC, they even took a photocopy.
Callsigns do get re-assigned occasionally, so what may have happened is that the person who had it before gave up the callsign with Industry Canada, but never bothered to turn in his old plates to the MTO. The licence plate number won't get re-issued until that happens, even if the plates are hanging on a garage wall somewhere, rusted away to nothing, or were crushed with the last car they were on.
Edit: hang on - I re-read what you wrote.
The deal, IIRC, is this: if you want a ham radio plate, you have to be a ham. If you want any random six-character combination on your plate, you can have it (subject to the regular rules about profanity, etc.) as long as you pay the fee.
So... AFAIK, the whole process for hams is about justifying the cheap personalized plate, not about protecting callsigns.