As we prepare to start a 4,000+ mile family car trip that includes a significant leg in Canada, I’m looking at car magnets (not stickers as my wife is a non-tenured teacher in a red state; we purposefully live across the border in Minnesota) to “virtue signal” to Canadians that they may see a white American Midwestern husband and wife with kids in tow, but we are NOT what those demographics might imply.
I have found eight candidates I like, and each of the two tweets linked below contain four, in no particular order:
So: which, if any, of these do you like? My wife’s preference is the more “positive” ones; I like some that are less so, but I can live with positivity I suppose.
The more political-themed ones (like the “but they’re nuts” one) are not as useful in Canada, because Canadians don’t necessarily connect with them beyond “Oh, more US politics, ugh”.
I like “kind again” and “blonde with brains”. The “guns kill people” one won’t be universally liked: there’s a percentage of Canadians who oppose gun control, especially out West.
In my opinion, you won’t get shunned or assaulted if your vehicle doesn’t have a sticker. I guess you could make a few friends if it has a funny one.
Gee, I dunno, but with all these possibilities,there’s one option that the OP doesn’t seem to consider:
not declaring your politics to the whole world.
You’re on vacation—how 'bout just enjoying the mountain scenery and stuff?
You don’t have to evangelize to everybody you see…no matter whether your savior and messiah is a church, or a political party.
Believe it or not, the waitress and the hotel clerk are much more interested in your credit card than your political beliefs.
And you’ll probably enjoy your vacation more if you leave the politics at home.
Car signs are not necessary. This is Canada. You’re not going to get shot at. Although if you were to state outright that you voted for Trump, we have a devastating way of raising our eyebrows before politely excusing ourselves.
Pretty much this. We kind of keep to ourselves about politics in Canada. No one here is going to assume you’re a Trump supporter. We’re certainly not going to shoot you or key your car over it.
MAKA is a nice warm message though. Everyone will understand that just fine.
I agree with the other Canadians–such things are not necessary. Given my location’s proximity to the border, and a major border crossing, we get Americans coming through all the time. Nobody thinks anything good or bad of them, unless they say something really egregious, like dissing hockey.
Uhhh…I guess so? Although we’re kind of on the low end of that spectrum. My sister and brother-in-law recently took their family (including my niece and nephew) to France for a couple weeks. I’m a huge Francophile, and would love to do that, which is why we’re doing a week at an AirBnB in Quebec City but driving there because we can’t afford to fly.
You do realize this statement is in and of itself a snarky kind of virtue signal.
No, I’m not afraid of getting shot at or having my car keyed. However, last summer we took an even more low-key Canadian vacation (visiting my mom in Ontario, just north of the border with Minnesota) and in a bottle shop parking lot a middle-aged woman challenged me about Trump, upon seeing my plates. It was polite but still definitely a little stressed-sounding. Something like “So what do you say about Trump, eh?” with her mouth kind of tightly pursed like she was afraid things could turn ugly. I am a mischievous imp, so I started in about how he was making America great again, but after a few seconds I could see she was about to have a stroke so I assured her I was kidding and that I missed Obama already, to her evident relief.
So does it “really” matter? No. But that’s true of a lot of things, including whether I’m wearing something that looks nice, or just presentable, or just the legal minimum to avoid getting a public indecency ticket. I want to “look nice” for the Canadians in a political sense.
Someone said something political in response to US plates. Even when there’s some weak truth behind them, stereotypes don’t fit every single person in the group. There’s also a stereotype about how uncivil our political discourse is that’s pretty broad IME. I’d encourage you to avoid the ones you like but admit are less nice. Those are you choosing to intentionally fit an ugly stereotype about Americans. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
Along with hockey don’t include any message that could be misinterpreted as dissing Timmies. Those are glove dropping words.
