ELECTION 2003: Fp RELEASES ITS PLAN FOR AUTO INSURANCE Freedom Party Promises to Scrap No-Fault, Match Premiums to Risk

The Right Direction on Auto Insurance

September 11, 2003 - Oshawa, Ontario

Following a public consultation process, Freedom Party of Ontario is today releasing its plan to repair Ontario auto insurance. Entitled "The Right Direction for Auto Insurance", the plan is founded on the findings of studies that compare US no-fault and non-no-fault states. It notes that no US state adopted no-fault after 1976, that no-fault has been repealed in all but 12 US states (most recently, in July 2003, Colorado), and that Saskatchewan recently allowed drivers to opt-out of no-fault.

"Ernie Eves says he won't be coming up with a solution to the auto insurance crisis until January of 2004", says Freedom Party of Ontario leader, Paul McKeever. "Well, the election is on now, and the next one is four or five years away: the voter needs to know now, not after the election, how the government-to-be will solve the auto insurance mess. Having released our draft plan to the public for comment almost a month ago, Freedom Party is today releasing its plan for all Ontario to see. Unlike the proposals being made by Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Eves, Freedom Party's plan is a cure, not merely a treatment."

McKeever sums up the Freedom Party plan this way: "From each according to his risk, to each according to his policy".

Pursuant to the plan, a Freedom Party government will:

1. End the 13 year experiment with no-fault auto-insurance and return Ontario to its pre-1990 tort-based system, in which only an at-fault person ends up paying a higher premium after an accident, and in which fraud is reduced;
   
   
2. Re-empower drivers, and control price gouging by insurers, by restoring to drivers the power to say “no” to the purchase of overpriced insurance policies without losing the privilege of driving (that power was taken away from drivers by the PC government of Bill Davis in 1980);
   
   
3. Give drivers and insurance companies greater ability to limit their costs and to tailor insurance to the needs and wants of the driver; and
   
   
4. End the government’s politicized, bureaucratized and expensive price manipulation and pre-approval system, and the government’s current practice of requiring low-risk drivers to subsidize the premiums of high-risk drivers.

The Right Direction for Auto Insurance is available online in Adobe .pdf format by clicking here.

The Freedom Party of Ontario's election platform, The Right Direction, can be found at:

https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform.pdf (Adobe .pdf format)

https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform/html/cover.htm (HTML format)

Paul McKeever (who will be running in the riding of Oshawa, against Sid Ryan and Jerry Ouellette) is available to discuss this matter. You can contact him directly at:

***-***-**** (cell)

Freedom Party is expected to run candidates in approximately half of Ontario's ridings in the coming election.

For further information: Paul McKeever, Leader, Freedom Party of Ontario.
Oshawa Office Telephone: 905-721-9772.
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