License Plates

 The Renewal of Them
   I just did a post about red light cameras and alluded to the attendant political issues and that reminded me of license plates. We no longer have to get new ones yearly, or even the sticker to indicate we are up-to-date driving-wise. I also thought about them before I recently took a trip out of Ontario and wondered if some alert trooper might notice that my plates appeared to be expired. I realized I could probably stumble through some explanation, or simply say we don't need them and, like most things that have changed, it was because of Covid.
  If you also have difficulty remembering current events and are heading out of province, just take this post along on your phone. The Ontario Government announcement is here and perhaps the title is enough: "Ontario Eliminating Licence Plate Renewal Fees and Stickers" Province is Cutting Costs and Making Life More Convenient For Millions of Vehicle Owners."
  This all happened back in March, 2022 and not everyone agreed with the decision: "Green party leader Mike Schreiner said the announcement is just an election gimmick — the province heads to the polls in June — and the other opposition leaders are "playing footsie" with it. "That is a billion-dollar election boondoggle that means less money for health care, less money for education, less money for affordable housing," he said."
   Like me, many others have bad memories and have forgotten that the plates still need to be renewed: "Police say they are dealing with an “overwhelming” number of unregistered licence plates in Ontario as drivers forget to regularly renew."

   To solve the problem when travelling to other jurisdictions, one could get a vanity plate with a variant of NTXPRD, but they are all likely taken and a trooper might not be satisfied. Plus, it is rather difficult to think of just about any combination of letters that would be acceptable these days and you definitely don't want to display what might be called a "Hate Plate." The rules are found here. There is no "freedom of speech" when it comes to license plates. 

Sources: 
   The Schreiner quote is from: "Ontario to Scrap Vehicle License Renewal Fees, Requirement For Stickers,' CBC News, Feb. 22, 2022.
   The increase in expired plates is here: "Unregistered Ontario License Plates Spike After Renewal Fees Eliminated," Isaac Callan, Global News, Dec. 29, 2023.

"Police say they are dealing with an “overwhelming” number of unregistered licence plates in Ontario as drivers forget to regularly renew.

It is close to two years since the Ford government announced it would scrap the fee to renew licence plates in Ontario, a promise unveiled months before the last provincial election.

The cost to renew licence stickers was previously set at $120 for a year in southern Ontario, with the decision to scrap the fee costing the province around $1.1 billion per year."

Post Script - For the Spelling Police:

"In British English, Canadian English, Irish English, Australian English, South African English, and New Zealand English the noun is spelled licence and the verb is license. The spelling licence is not used for either part of speech in the United States."