For over four decades, car licence plates in Alberta have proudly proclaimed that the western Canadian province is "Wild Rose Country". The slogan may lack the poetry of Saskatchewan's "Land of Living Skies". Its shape cannot compete with the plate of the neighbouring Northwest Territories, which is stamped in the form of a polar bear. Still, the province's official flower is a far more positive symbol of Alberta than the tar sands. Just how strongly Albertans feel about the plate became apparent earlier this month when the ruling Progressive Conservatives announced a redesign, supposedly for safety reasons, that would replace Wild Rose Country with the somewhat less lyrical "alberta.ca". "Plategate" has dominated political discourse in the province ever since.
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