Nunavut and NWT license plates, new and old

[oscar]

Here are some license plate photos, from my Nunavut "road trip" earlier this month.



^  This plate, on the SUV I rented in Iqaluit, shows the current style used in Nunavut Territory. AIUI, when the territory was formed in 1999, it at first copied the polar bear plate design from the Northwest Territories, from which Nunavut was carved out. However, the NWT government objected, and made the Nunavut government change its plate design. Some people in Iqaluit were unhappy that NWT made Nunavut go to a new plate design, then NWT changed its own design too. The car rental agency in Iqaluit told me that the old Nunavut plates have mostly disappeared from circulation, and collectors are trying to buy up any old plates they can find.



^  Not giving up after I left Iqaluit, where I saw no old Nunavut plates, I was surprised and pleased to see three of them in the parking lot for the Rankin Inlet airport, like the one above on a government vehicle. I had seen no others in Rankin Inlet, nor did I see any in Cambridge Bay in far western Nunavut later in my trip. I guess I got lucky, stepping out of the terminal while waiting for my outgoing flight.



^ Here's an example of the current NWT plate, a low-number plate I spotted in Yellowknife on my first visit in 2012.





^ Some older versions of the NWT plate, including the design temporarily borrowed by Nunavut at its inception. I photographed these plates earlier this month, posted outside the Yellowknife visitor center.

BTW, both Nunavut and NWT are rear plate-only jurisdictions.

[agentsteel53]

while I like the printed bear with the aurora (in fact, I have a number 00 00 sample plate in my collection!), I'm a bit dismayed that they went away from the bear shape.

I think any jurisdiction with polar bears in it has earned the right to a bear-shaped plate.  that includes Alaska, Yukon, Quebec, Manitoba, and wherever else the bears may be.