Jason,
I am not currently co-located with much of my relevant reference material, but will attempt to roughly address some of your questions.
The RCAC War Memorial (the monument flanked by the M5A1s) was erected in what is now known as Worthington Park shortly after the war (I think it was 1948). The two early images of the memorial that I have seen were taken from short range and aren’t wide enough to show the areas were the tanks are located.
I believe the M5A1s have been flanking the memorial since the early 1950s. If this is correct then they would not have been included with those sent to Portugal, and would have no connection to Levy’s/Elliots.
If my memory serves me correctly, This book:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/143816763977...yABEgKtHvD_BwE
contains a couple of images of a parade which are key to determining the date that the Stuarts were placed in the park. I believe the images show the Stuarts flanking the monument during a roll past of M4A1 Grizzly Tanks and Grizzly APCs.
I will attempt to provide better date information soon.
I believe that the vehicles are at least partially stripped (no engines), this seems to correspond with many of the early monuments in Worthington Park.
Colin