ICBC has made a couple new plate designs 

"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish) 01/23/2017 at 02:47 • Filed to: Plates

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I’d be happy with the top one, but I’ve managed to keep my current plates long enough that I’m not gonna give them up. Maybe if I get a second car I’ll get these ones.

It’s also ironic for them to make BC Parks plates, since the provincial government has been underfunding the parks like crazy for years.

Svend > gmctavish needs more space 01/23/2017 at 03:22

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On a different note.

What’s it like with having America to the south and west of you? Any border rivalry or opposite like a sense of being neither Canadian or American?

I notice looking at the maps that where a lake starts in the U.S. the whole body of water is outlined as it snakes into Canada. Is the whole body of water such as Atlin lake Tagish Lake.

Does that mean that both A and B are also U.S. territorial waters? I’m almost positive they aren’t but you’ll know better than me.

gmctavish needs more space > Svend 01/23/2017 at 03:45

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Not really, to the south it’s just a place that some people I know go shopping or for cheap gas. No identity issues, though I’ve never really thought about that. Most of the population in Canada is close to the US border, I guess I think of America as our insane older brother that we need to play nice with because he has big guns.

The border with Alaska is thousands of kms away from me and never really comes to mind, but if it does, it’s just mild annoyance that Alaska isn’t part of Canada like it was supposed to be until Britain sided with the US in that whole dispute.

As for the water, I believe both A and B are solidly Canadian territorial waters, but I’m not entirely sure how the border with the panhandle works up there. I know there’s an Alaskan town called Hyder that has no road to the rest of Alaska, and it’s a few kms from the Canadian town of Stewart. It also uses a BC area code, and BC electricity I believe.

Svend > gmctavish needs more space 01/23/2017 at 04:19

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Wasn’t Alaska Russian? Or am I missing a few bits?

B.C. is right in the sweet spot for the shortest route from the main U.S. to Alaska.

On the customs programmes it always has U.S. citizens wanting to transit Canada to get to Alaska but get turned away because of prior convictions, guns, undeclared alcohol that Canadian taxes must be paid on, etc...

I find borders very interesting.

Take this small German town of Busingen am Hochrhein in Switzerland yet on three sides just a few kilometres away (less than one to the east) is surrounded by Germany.

Or this small town of Nahwa which half on one side of the border and half on the other. Half is in the Emirates the other in Oman, yet both are in Oman which is inside the Emirates with Oman to the north and south.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Svend 01/23/2017 at 05:22

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Americans claim a lot of places are international waters that really aren’t and shouldn’t be by anyone else’s definition, especially up in the Arctic archipelago. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the map makers (who are statistically more likely to be American) were fudging things a little.

Svend > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 01/23/2017 at 09:07

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Just looking at the Google map there. Canadian territory has a red line around it, yet non Canadian areas don’t.

It may just be how Google presents the map. I just think it looks odd.

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > Svend 01/23/2017 at 09:30

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If you find borders interesting, you might be interested in Point Roberts, Washington:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Roberts,_Washington

fintail > Svend 01/23/2017 at 09:43

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I think the biggest identity issue in BC vs USA on the BC side is that the identity is based on being not-American. Some wannabe-urbane types in Vancouver also pretend to be cultured Europeans, but nobody falls for it, as it is much more like Seattle than it is like Sweden or Belgium.

I’ve been through Busingen am Hochrhein a few times, I remember it being just a little road sign.

Svend > Svart Smart, traded in his Smart 01/23/2017 at 09:49

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So Point Roberts was a map issue that the U.S. didn’t reply to the U.K.s address. I don’t know if that’s weirder on not than these small places that exist because the boundaries changed after conflicts or political concessions.

Svend > fintail 01/23/2017 at 10:10

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I’ve heard the same said of San Juan Island when some people I used to know in Seattle went there for a few days holiday. They said it just wasn’t American but they liked it as they sold British chocolates and biscuits they’d never heard of before.

Sometimes on the borders the national stereotypes become really pronounced as if to reinforce who they are. Where I am is no exception.

We have British then we have people who identify themselves as solely Scottish or solely English. But we’ve strong history together against English rule and Scottish rule along the nine mile stretch from coast to coast known as the debatable lands, it’s people known as the Reivers.  

gmctavish needs more space > Svend 01/23/2017 at 10:18

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It was owned by Russia, it’s how it got sold to the US that I’m not quite remembering. America had their eyes on BC as well, but it was added to Canada shortly after they bought Alaska.

Borders are definitely interesting. The way Point Roberts got forgotten is one of my favourite local weird things, that Svart Smart already pointed out.

Svend > gmctavish needs more space 01/23/2017 at 10:26

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The whole 49th parallel is interesting. It was meant to be a straight line (or rather follow the 49th parallel but on the ground in real life it isn’t. It undulates up and down as it goes round.

fintail > Svend 01/23/2017 at 10:40

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Yeah, I think the San Juans capitalize on their closeness to Vancouver Island, and to the related tourist trade. That ‘debatable lands’ idea is interesting.

Funny thing is, if the US/Canada as we know it today ever fractures and reorganizes, WA and BC will likely be in the same entity, as they have a lot more in common than they do with points east. I see Vancouver as just a denser (sometimes) cleaner more expensive Seattle, the suburbs are also similar, and cities in inland BC aren’t completely unlike eastern WA.

Svend > fintail 01/23/2017 at 10:55

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The debatable land bit was sorted a couple of hundred years ago. Scotland and England used to fight over it, yet neither could control it. The people, The Reivers, would go into the other nation and murder and pillage and come home.

I think some gel together so much it’s harder to see where one finishes and the other starts.

gmctavish needs more space > fintail 01/23/2017 at 10:56

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I have a couple friends who are very into the whole Cascadia thing. There are even more who feel generally ignored by Ottawa and who would probably be open to it if it came up. I’m not that into the idea, but it’s definitely interesting

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Svend 01/23/2017 at 18:13

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They must just think we’re w bunch of Commies.

fintail > gmctavish needs more space 01/23/2017 at 21:14

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I hear a bit about that too. I think it has no chance, at least in the next generation or so, but it is funny to think about.

Frankly, I also feel more connected to people in BC than those in the southeast, I see the logic behind it. With ever-deepening regional wealth disparities, a united west coast would be an economic powerhouse - lots of natural and human resources.