Profile: Lapel Pins – 1981 Canadian Figure Skating Championships, Halifax, Canada

Halifax is a busy seaport city in the province of Nova Scotia, way up in Atlantic Canada, that has hosted a number of major figure skating championships, including the 1981 Canadian Figure Skating Championships, the subject of this blog from The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins. The lapel pins from that event incorporate a local landmark, Town Clock at Fort George, as the central design element to create an instant connection to the city that some 400,000+ people call home today. The ever-present maple leaf appears like a ray of sunshine behind the clock, which appears to display 12:05 as the maritime time.

The circular, enamel logo pin is on a gold-color base metal and measures approximately 3/4″ in diameter (1.9 cm) and features a brilliant blue at the center, nicely offsetting the maple leaf and clock tower logo. Tucked at the bottom right of the maple leaf is the event year: “1981.” The outer circumference of the pin features the event name and location on a white background: “Canadian Figure Skating Championships, Halifax.” This is an example of only a handful of figure skating pins that does not incorporate any direct representation of the sport: there is no skater, blade, boot, ice tracings, or other iconic symbol. And nothing that even hints of winter, which would have been in full swing at the end of January when the event got under way. This marked the second consecutive year there was no representation of skating made on the Canadian national championship pin. See the 1980 Canadian Figure Skating Championships blog for the unusual local object used that year.

The lapel pins from the 1981 Canadian Figure Skating Championships event incorporate a local landmark, The Town Clock at Fort George, as the central design element to create an instant connection to the city.

Coming in at 1‑1/2″ (3.8 cm), the special pin made for and given only to competitors and selected officials of the event is identical in every way to the logo pin other than size. For a number of years, the Canadian Figure Skating Championships were marked not only with a logo pin but with a larger version produced in limited quantity and given selectively. This was similarly done for a number of Skate Canada events, beginning with the first in 1973 through at least 1986. This Skate Canada blog post features a number of those pins.

To date, the Canadian Figure Skating Championships have returned to Halifax three other times—in 1995, 2007, and 2016. It seems Halifax, even in its somewhat remote location, remains on the favored list as a host city for major figure skating championships.

Enjoy this week’s figure skating pins blog: 1981 Canadian Figure Skating Championships Pins: Maritime Time. And be sure to read the museum story for more information about figure skating pins.

Pins Gallery: 1981 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

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