Alberta to drop 'Wild Rose Country' from licence plates
- Thread starter Locutus
- Start date
How does a government botch something as simple as changing your provincial license plate?
Apparently, it’s a lot easier than it seems, because our moribund PC government has done exactly that.
First, we have the designs. Mountains and wheat, iconic images of Alberta, right? Sure. But mountains figure prominently on Colorado’s plates, too. But that’s the least of the problems. The designs are, at best, mediocre.
Then there’s the slogan, or more accurately, the lack of slogan. For decades, we’ve had Wild Rose Country, which is nice if a little dull. But the government decided to get rid of Wild Rose Country in favour of the much more lyrical and evocative “alberta.ca”. Yep, a website. The government apparently thinks that non-Albertans would have to be directed to a website to find out more about the province, because people today can’t figure out how to access this new fangled Internet thingy, and need to have the website spelled out. It’s clearly just coincidence that the Wild Rose slogan is identical to the name of the opposition party that is on track to dethrone the PCs. Yes, coincidence.
It turns out the plate designs come from an AMERICAN firm. And not just any AMERICAN firm, but 3M, q multi-national monster. A government spokesman said the decision to use an American firm was a cost saving decision, but that’s simply beyond credibility. How many design firms are there in Alberta? Dozens? Hundreds? There’s not a single one of them that wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to design something that will adorn every single motor vehicle in Alberta.
At least one firm has. CBC Edmonton reported on an Edmonton firm, Graphos, that quickly designed a plate that is far superior to the slapdash 3M version. And better yet, it incorporated the mountains into the plate in the same way the NWT plate uses the polar bear, making a plate in the shape of the mountains. Simple, and brilliant.
So how could this have been handled better? It’s so simple: announce a contest open to design firms in Alberta to create a new plate. To ensure real applications and not just a flood of haphazard designs, add a submission fee for each design, say $100 or something.
Once the submissions are in, convene a panel of design experts to pick the three top designs, then offer it up to the public. Winning design gets a cash prize.
This method would have engaged the Alberta creative community, and got the public involved. But instead, we have a bureaucratic snafu that makes no one happy.
In This Corner | How the PCs bungled the license plate design contest.
WOW!
Somebodies had to much coffee.
I've never heard of him myself either but I thought it interesting that the Oilberta gov went to an American company to design a Canadian Lic Plate.
And indeed, a rather boring design............
It's a license plate bud, not a Picasso.
Honestly, you gotta have a massive hole in your life to get all in a twist fretting over the design of a license plate
Honestly, you gotta have a massive hole in your life to get all in a twist fretting over the design of a license plate
I would prefer a barcode (front, back and roof) and the numbers be linked to a phone message place as part of the 'getting a plate in the first place' process. Whatever, I like Tiger lilies better anyway but I don't need them on the car to remember that. As long as the LCD's in the plateholder mess up the speed camera it could be whatever they want. If they type it in and suddenly they hear what is being said in the vehicle then that is a tool, it is a toy when the public is doing the same thing to the squad cars. (having the engine codes is a bit alarming)
In the vanity plate section I assume 'Alberta' is already taken. How about 'Wild Rose'?
God forgot to give those places a horizon.
In the vanity plate section I assume 'Alberta' is already taken. How about 'Wild Rose'?
"Mountains? Hills." ?? That's what Ontario has... 'molehills' that they call mountains..