Time to fix soaring car insurance rates

Re Drive less, pay less: Ontario gets pay-as-you-go insur- ance option, May 24

Insurance companies will get you one way or another. Case in point: My car insurance for this year increased by 23 per cent — an outrageous amount. I drive an average of 8,000 kilometres a year, have been driving for just over 60 years and have never had a claim and only one parking ticket.

I called my agent to discuss this and a review of my policy showed I got all the proper discounts. I did notice that the “territory” had been changed and, when I mentioned this, was told this was the reason for the increase.

By enlarging the area, I am now considered to be in one that obviously has more “poor” drivers and I am now paying for them. The move to change the boundaries has penalized good drivers and obviously made more money for the insurance company. Is there any justification for this? Robert Herscovitch, Toronto

Re Ducking the solution to sky-high auto insurance, Walkom, May 21

As a citizen who has pleaded long and hard with our three Ontario parties regarding our skyhigh auto insurance premiums, I salute Thomas Walkom for bringing this key issue to the fore during the election campaign.

The Liberal party has not even been successful in delivering a 15-per-cent reduction in premiums, while the PC party appears rather unconcerned.

Walkom is right that our politicians have been “playing around the edges,” resulting in no tangible results. Ontario drivers pay more than twice as much as their counterparts in Quebec, despite our better driving records.

The best way to reduce costs is the creation of public auto insurance in our province.

It is important for the hapless citizens of Ontario to demand our provincial politicians solve this long-standing issue. Rudy Fernandes, Mississauga