Car insurance

Yes, I realize it's a pretty lame title - so sue me.

Actually, this post was inspired last weekend. We were back in Saskatchewan to help celebrate my grandma's soon-to-arrive 90th birthday. My sister and I began debating the merits of SK vs AB's approaches to insurance to operate a vehicle. Not that my web-traffic can handle the influx of sure-to-come visitors, but I thought I'd hash out our positions, and invite comments towards a sound policy.

Anyhoo - here goes.

I guess I should mention that neither of us is expert on any of the systems we discussed. So, to the best of our knowledge, Sask has a very lenient insurance system, particularly towards new drivers. After 3 consecutive years of 1 accident per year (coincidentally, my first 3 years driving), I paid an extra $500 in personal insurance ($850, if you consider the cumulative increases - ie. $100, then $250, then $500). My vehicle insurance stayed somewhere around $650 each year. Since then, I smartened up quite a bit, and have an almost perfectly clean driving record since (probably a couple speeding tickets over the intervening 16 years or so, and an accident for which I wasn't responsible). In Alberta, as a young man, I would probably have been tagged with several thousand dollars in car insurance each year. My sis says it's horrible for the government to penalize young people who 'need' to drive around. I mentioned that driving is a privilege, not a right. She mentioned that only the kids with rich parents would be able to afford to drive. I demurred (okay, I didn't - just thought it an interesting verb to throw in). As an aside, I also mentioned what I believe to be the 'French model', whereby a new driver pays through the nose ('le nez', pour les francophones) the first time acquiring a license. After that, the license needn't be renewed, ever, until a certain number of demerits have accumulated. If that should happen, it's nose-gushing payments again. Thoughts? (I mean, other than, 'you really don't have any blog-traffic?').

Oh, and happy 90th birthday, grandma ;)