Starting this month, the state of Maine has begun rolling out new license plates featuring a nod to the 1901 flag—a green pine and North Star—or a no-fuss blue-and-white design.
It’s all part of an initiative spearheaded by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), who’s looking to have the license plate transformation completed by July 2026, just after she’ll face off in the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial primary.
While online commenters have debated the various aesthetic qualities of the new plate designs, a more substantive debate has emerged now that vehicle owners, especially those who manage large fleets of vehicles, have discovered that all of Maine’s new license plates are coming from Waldale Manufacturing Limited, a Canadian company based in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
According to the contract the Secretary of State’s Office signed with Waldale Manufacturing, the state of Maine will pay $5.8 million to the Canadian firm for their help stamping out the license plates in time to meet the July 2026 deadline. Per the contract, the entire sum originated from the state highway fund.
Why is the deadline July 2026? No one has said why.
Maine’s license plates have typically been stamped out at a facility run by prison labor. However, the prison plate-stamping machine is antiquated and couldn’t produce plates fast enough to meet the deadline. So rather than change the deadline, the Secretary of State funneled $5.8 million from the highway fund into a Canadian company to get the job done quickly.
Waldale, for its part, is a massive company that provides tens of millions of license plates annually for several different states and Canadian provinces.
All of this was authorized during the 131st Legislature by LD 1965, a bill from former Democratic Rep. Lynne Williams that passed with unanimous consent in both the House and the Senate.
Testifying in favor of the bill, Bellows didn’t explain why the rapid deadline was necessary, but she insisted that upgrading the plates would both increase public safety on the roadways and boost state revenues by forcing auto registration scofflaws to emerge and get new plates.
