Don’t Harass those with U.S. Licence Plates

The United States has started a nasty trade war, and this war will send ripples through almost every layer of society. It’s already changed what we buy, what wine we drink, what we choose to eat and where we go on vacation. Americans are taking notice, as Gordon Anderson, a glass artist who sells a lot of work to Canadians told The Seattle Times, “Canadians are kind of pissed.”

We are. Will it change the way we drive and interact with other drivers?

Let’s start with a question for Canadian drivers: Are you going to start harassing everyone with American licence plates?

It may seem absurd, but it already appears to be happening.

In a story about the tiny American border town of Point Roberts, Wash, The Globe and Mail reported that Ailish Wallace, a Canadian who lives in Point Roberts, said she was shopping in B.C. when a “stranger looked her up and down” and demanded to know why she had Washington State plates. Wallace told The Globe, “I said, ‘Because I’m married to an American,’ And he goes, ‘It’s time to file for divorce.’ A lot of people I’ve talked to lately have been getting dirty looks, comments, the ‘Go back to America.’”

Canadians are rightly angry. We are livid, but let’s not lose our common decency. Let’s not single out Americans by licence plate and subject them to abuse.

I’m not saying we are better than that. I’m just saying, let’s not be as bad as that. Let’s not allow the iniquity of this trade war to turn us into the very thing we despise – bullies. And male drivers of Canada, by all that is great and good on this green earth, do not accost women – regardless of age, race or licence plates – in parking lots. What a terrible disgrace.