TikTok creator wants to design Manitoba Parks specialty licence plate

A popular social media creator and licence plate collector has unveiled his design for a specialty Manitoba plate – and he hopes his sketch can become reality.

Ethan Craft, known on TikTok as Ethan the License Plate Guy to his 470,000 followers, put crayons to paper in a widely viewed video last week.

Craft, who does not live in the Keystone Province, is hoping to win a contest from the provincial government encouraging people to design a licence plate for Manitoba Parks. He first saw the call to action from Riding Mountain MLA Greg Nesbitt.

“I’ve only been eligible to enter two (contests). Typically they stipulate you need to be a resident of the state or province or of a certain age bracket or whatever the parameters are,” Craft told CityNews.

The only requirement for this plate, though, is to include an emblem on the left side and a slogan along the bottom. Craft took that even further; his design features the names of dozens of Manitoba’s parks, a design choice he says has been positively received by his followers.

Craft hopes Manitoba feels the same, as designing a licence plate is the collector’s dream.

“That’s the ultimate honour and one of my bucket list items,” he said.

“If it does happen to win and go into production, I think I’ll have to make a second visit to Manitoba and see some of the parks for myself.”

@licenseplatetok Let me know what you think of my design! ???????????? #foryoupage #fyp #licenseplatetok #manitoba #canada #winnipeg ♬ original sound - Ethan the License Plate Guy

Craft has loved collecting licence plates since he was three or four years old. His collection has nearly 2,000 plates. He brought that passion to social media.

“I would say 95 per cent of my following are not licence plate collectors,” said Craft. “They just appreciate insight into something they don’t know about. But I get comments saying ‘I started collecting because of you and started looking at licence plates.’”

The winning plate will be unveiled for the 2025 camping season.

An estimated $1 million will be generated for local park projects, as proceeds from sales of the plates will support Manitoba’s Provincial Parks Endowment Fund.