A closer look
Nunavut authorities issued official vehicle license plates in the literal shape of a polar bear from 1999 until 2012, giving the northern Canadian territory the undisputed title of the most adorable governmental bureaucracy in existence until they eventually had to transition to standard rectangular plates because modern automated license plate reading cameras could not comprehend the majestic ursine geometry and kept throwing digital tantrums; it is genuinely tragic that the relentless march of technological surveillance effectively killed off the coolest vehicle registration tags in human history, forcing everyone to conform to the boring metal rectangles used by the rest of the world, meaning the next time a traffic camera mails you a speeding ticket, you can curse the very same optical recognition software that murdered the joy of driving with a metal bear strapped to your bumper
