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British Columbia Parks License Plates
Best Plate of 2017?

Every year the Automobile License Plate Collector's Association (ALPCA) holds a survey amongst its membership to determine the most highly regarded design, amongst collectors, issued during that calendar year, and which is then present with the "Best License Plate Award'.

The Association limits the number of enteries to one per state/province per year so, in 2017, the challenge of winning the award for BC was taken up by the Keremode Bear version of the BC Parks plate. in this writer's highly biased estimation, found itself the cream of a surprisingly weak field - given that literally dozens (hundreds?) of new plate designs are issued each and every year by our American cousins.

The competition in 2017 was significantly better than that faced by the Olympic base in 2007 (we have since ordered these by the place they finished in the competition as well as the points received):

1st - New Mexico
"Chile Capital of the World"
(836 points)

2nd - Hawaii
"Volcanoes National Park"
(505 points)

3rd - Wyoming
"General Issue"
(452 points)

4th - Oklahoma
"Pioneers of the Prairie"
(406 points)

5th - Tennessee
"Dolly Parton Imagination Library"
(358 points)

6th - British Columbia
"BC Parks"
(329 points)

7th - Texas
"100 Year Plate"
(229 points)

8th - Indiana
"General Issue"
(220 points)

9th - Wisconsin
"Help Cure Childhood Cancer"
(199 points)

10th - Nevada
"Great Reno Ballon Race"
(162 points)

11th - PEI
"Canada's First Automobile"
(144 points)

12th - Japan
"Olympics"
(131 points)

13th - Washington
"Steelhead"
(104 points)

14th - New South Wales
"Beach"
(101 points)

15th - South Dakota
"General Issue"
(94 points)

16th - Illinois
"General Issue"
(77 points)

17th - Manitoba
"Basketball for Life"
(47 points)
We hear at BCpl8s.ca gave up trying to predict the outcome of the contests years ago as our track record in making predictions has been abysmal. That said, when looking at the standings, keep in mind that the demographic of ALPCA is very much dominated by older white American males (really, who else collects license plates?), which might help explain why Dolly Parton topped out above the BC Parks plate by almost 30 points.

© Copyright Christopher John Garrish. All rights reserved.