Congratulations to Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party, chosen by Albertans as our provincial government in a vote held late last month. Nötley Crüe could have won the election by publicly proclaiming a party platform plank promising to reduce auto insurance premiums for good Alberta motorists by trimming insurer profits rather than by gutting people’s rights, but the NDP chose not to do so, and here we are.
Political parties elected to office with a fresh mandate typically tend to implement their most odious hidden agendas during the first half of a four year term, because a short-memory populace likely will have long forgotten the government’s treachery by the time the next general election rolls around. For that reason, it is perhaps not surprising to discover the details of the UCP’s first bill set to be introduced in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly this autumn: the Enhancing Voting Choice Act! Currently, citizens of our province have the FREEdom to vote without having to shell out cash at the ballot box. But after Bill 1 (the Enhancing Voting Choice Act) is rammed through the legislature this November, Albertans will need to purchase their rights to vote in future provincial elections from a private corporation called Took Back ‘Berta for a nominal fee of $200 per ballot. Albertans also will retain the option to not vote, which of course under the new law will save them the $200. Under this revolutionary “made-in-Alberta” system (voter suppression thinly veiled as choice), it’s a pretty safe bet that most Albertans will choose not to vote anymore. Ain’t “enhancing voting choice” grand? Spoiler alert: what you just read is more akin to satire than truth. There is no planned Enhancing Voting Choice Act in the works, at least so far as we know. However, the powerful auto insurance industry has a somewhat similar Modest Proposal in mind, and the multinational, multibillion dollar industry’s well-connected lobbyists are scheming to bend the ears of provincial government bureaucrats and newly appointed cabinet ministers at this very moment. You see, insurance lobbyists want Premier Smith’s UCP government to pass a deceitfully named “Enhancing Care & Expanding Choice” Act. Currently, an Albertan injured by a reckless driver has the unfettered legal FREEdom to recover full and fair compensation from the at-fault motorist’s insurance company for chronic pain and suffering, income loss, out-of-pocket expenses including medical treatment costs and other damages incurred as a result of the motor vehicle accident. However, under an Enhancing Care & Expanding Choice Act, our UCP government would confiscate these long-standing civil legal rights from Albertans, who would then be forced to buy back their human rights from private auto insurance corporations (at a premium hike of about $200 per year for starters), or else save $200 and just do without those misappropriated rights. It’s a pretty safe bet that most Albertans would opt to save the $200 (after all, the discount insurance pink card would look the same as the more expensive one) and lose their traditional freedoms to a government favouring insurance industry profits over people, especially if automobile insurers sprinkle some shiny yet essentially fake “enhanced care” no-fault benefits (equivalent in value to about twenty-four bucks worth of beads and trinkets) on the grossly degraded cheaper product. McCourt Law Offices has been warning Albertans about the auto insurance lobby’s putrid plot in blog posts published here each and every month of the first half of 2023. But there comes a time to pass the torch, and so our firm now leaves it to FAIR Alberta to encourage Albertans to urge our MLAs to say no to the insurance lobby’s spurious “No-Fault With a Bogus Tort Option” scam. In the meantime, and maybe for a limited time only, if you have been wrongfully hurt by a careless driver, you still have the legal right to retain our highly recommended and experienced injury law firm to help recover on your behalf full and fair financial compensation from the at-fault driver’s insurance company. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for a FREE initial consultation. Thank you!