INSURING THE DEVIL’S WAGON: AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE AND INDUSTRY-GOVERNMENT RELATIONS IN SASKATCHEWAN AND MANITOBA, 1929-1971

Abstract

This dissertation examines the development of automobile accident victim compensation law and its connection to the insurance industry in Canada. Exploring the evolution of the law revealed a complex relationship between the insurance industry and governments in Canada. Cooperation between the two groups was predicated on a stable political environment and governments interested in preserving private enterprise. The emergence of governments supporting public enterprise created an adversarial relationship between the government and the insurance industry. This relationship was important to the development of the law, because the focus on issues like the levels of compensation provided to victims and highway safety was replaced by concerns over the cost of insurance. Using Saskatchewan and Manitoba as case studies, the dissertation examines the period between 1929 and 1971 and explores the development of financial responsibility law, safety responsibility law, and public compulsory automobile insurance. The two provinces provide a useful point of comparison because, starting in the 1940s, each province takes a different approach to the issue of automobile insurance. The conservative government in Manitoba adopted voluntary private law, while the leftist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation government in Saskatchewan implemented compulsory public automobile insurance. As the political situation changed in both provinces in the 1960s, the laws again came under intense scrutiny and highlight the effect on business-government relations and the law. The dissertation closes by examining the introduction of public compulsory automobile insurance in Manitoba following the 1969 election of the New Democratic Party and the retention of public compulsory automobile insurance in Saskatchewan following the 1964 election of the Liberals. In both cases, the relationship with the insurance industry changed and in neither case was the industry able to effect positive change from the industry perspective. In both cases, cost became the central issue replacing concern for victim compensation and safety.