So let me get this straight: Under Dalton McGuinty’s new driver’s licence proposals, a 19 year old will not be allowed to drive two other 19 year olds around in his car.

But an 18 year old can qualify for a commercial pilot's license and fly his friends around in an airplane.

He just can't drive them to the airport.

These changes certainly lead me to believe that Dalton McGuinty is out of touch with the reality of young drivers and their families today. Recent headlines of the tragic loss of life of young drivers involved in fatal collisions have certainly caught our attention; and we feel for the family’s loss. But we need to be cautious that any proposed changes are well thought out and will prove effective.

We all support sensible measures to combat dangerous driving, especially those involving alcohol but these simply go too far and are misguided.

- Tim Hudak

New Ontario bill targets teen drivers

KEITH LESLIE, The Canadian Press
November 18, 2008

TORONTO — A proposed Ontario law that would demand zero blood-alcohol levels for all motorists 21 and under and limit the number of passengers in their vehicles would also get tough on people of all ages who drive with a suspended licence, The Canadian Press has learned.

Sources said the legislation, to be introduced today, would go after people who still drive despite licence suspensions for drunk driving by immediately impounding their vehicles for seven days.

A vehicle would also be seized for seven days if someone who has been ordered by the courts to install an ignition-locking device that tests the driver for alcohol is pulled over driving someone else's car.

The zero blood-alcohol limit for Ontario drivers aged 16 to 21 would apply even to those who have enough experience behind the wheel to move up from the more restrictive graduated licences to a regular driver's licence.

Under the new bill, teenage drivers in Ontario would be allowed only one passenger aged 16 to 19 - although there would be exemptions for brothers and sisters. New drivers in Ontario are currently allowed as many passengers as they want during the day, but for the first six months of their G2 graduated licence they can't have more than one person under 19 in the vehicle from midnight until 5 a.m.

Under the proposed legislation, young Ontario drivers caught speeding would face a series of escalating sanctions, starting with a 30-day licence suspension. That increases to 90 days for a second offence and to a total suspension for a third offence. The person would then have to start over with beginner's driver-training courses and apply for a new licence.

Until recently, Premier Dalton McGuinty rejected calls to ban young drivers from drinking alcohol, suggesting it was something better left to parents than to a provincial law. He changed his mind after lobbying by the father of one of three young men killed in an accident last summer.

Tim Mulcahy campaigned publicly for changes to the drinking-and-driving laws when his son Tyler and two young friends died in a crash in Muskoka after they had been drinking. He took out full-page ads in newspapers urging Mr. McGuinty to "make a difference and reduce future suffering."