Toronto’s memorable safety mascots
From elephants to aliens to cars, T.O. found all sorts of ways to keep kids informed
If there is one area in which Toronto has always excelled, it is safety mascots. From talking police cars coaching road safety, to green aliens elucidating the nature of toxins, our local mascot squads have cast lasting (and sometimes upsetting) impressions that still linger. Contrary to their cheery outward disposition, many of these safety emissaries were created to address a changing, darker world.
Here are five of the most memorable mascots that helped Toronto kids survive those childhood years. Elmer the Safety Elephant In 1947, due to the alarming rise in traffic fatalities among elementary school-aged children, then-mayor Robert Hood Saunders joined forces with the Toronto Evening Telegram to create a character that could empower kids to pay closer attention to road safety.
They hired Winnipeg animator Charles Thorson, most famous for his work with Walt Disney, to devise Elmer the Safety Elephant, chosen because “Elephants never forget!”
Elmer visited young students alongside local police officers to talk about the rules of the road. The following years traffic accidents in Toronto involving children dropped more than 44 per cent. Blinky the Talking Police Car Metro Toronto Police Sgt. Roy Wilson created a perfect companion for Elmer in the form of Blinky, a humanized police cruiser who could help kids remember traffic safety. In the late 1960s, Wilson found sponsorship from CHUM to create the first version of Blinky.
A standard-issue, yellow police Plymouth Fury was adapted to incorporate two large eyes and a long nose. After appearances at the CNE and in the Santa Claus Parade, both Irwin Toys and Tonka engaged in a bidding war to snatch the lucrative Blinky licence, sadly rejected by the police commission. In 1975, the Toronto Star produced a10-minute animated film entitled Blinky: Traffic Safety Rules, which was shown in schools on 16-millimetre film.
While Blinky still appears in the Santa Claus Parade every year, his voice was long ago silenced. Barney the Beaver Barney the Beaver first appeared in the late 1960s as the TTC’s ambassador for public transport safety.
A natural streetwise companion to both Elmer and Blinky, Barney could also be found marching in the Santa Claus Parade, as well as visiting schools and appearing at fairs where he handed out buttons and colouring books. Back in the day, the TTC also ran buses that doubled as mobile classrooms, allowing the Barney safety show to travel far and wide. Binkley and Doinkel Do you remember the two curious extraterrestrials who visited Earth in the1970s to learn about safety from a dog named Sniffer (naturally) and a mustache-twirling vaudevillian villain called R. Pugsley De Pugh?
Binkley and Doinkel debuted in the 1970s to teach children about the four new safety icons — corrosive, flammable, poisonous or explosive materials — which appeared on many household items.
Binkley and Doinkel had first appeared in comic books, then graduat- ed to a nationwide travelling puppet show and a series of slightly menacing public service announcements. Bert and Gert After the murder of her daughter in 1986, Leslie Parrott launched the “Stay Alert, Stay Safe!” initiative with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to caution children on the dangers of talking to strangers, at home or anywhere else.
Aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, this program redressed the lack of public dialogue about streetproofing kids from the threat of abduction. Bert and Gert were bunnies who appeared in a series of PSAs aired daily during cartoon blocks on networks such as YTV and CBC. A compilation VHS tape of their adventures was available for free at all Canadian Tire outlets, and colouring books were distributed to kids by police officers visiting schools for safety talks. Astar An honourable mention must go to Astar, perhaps the most famous safety icon in Canadian history. Created by the late Hugh Clifford Chadderton (CEO of the War Amps) in Ottawa, Astar represented the fragility of human children with her famous line: “I am Astar, a robot. I can put my arm back on. You can’t. So play safe!”
The original Astar TV spot first appeared in 1984, and aired almost daily in the early morning and after school for well over a decade, leading a generation of kids to think twice about playing safe. Astar appeared in parades across the country, while the famous quote popped up on T-shirts and quickly became the stuff of Canadian legend.
Although it was remade in the 2000s with cheap-looking CGI and slight revisionism (Astar was now from “the planet Danger”), the original remains unparalleled.