CREDIT: Jean Levac, The Ottawa Citizen Avery Burdett says the Ontario government continues to ignore cyclists' advice to give priority to proven accident-prevention measures and forget about making helmets mandatory.

Re: Legislating virtue, Dec. 12.

Ontario Liberals acting like moralizing nannies and telling us we have made poor life choices is only half the insult inflicted on Ontario's taxpayers.

There is also the gross waste of time and public resources entailed in conjuring up and doling out nanny remedies.

In the 1990s, the Ontario legislature first tried to impose helmets on cyclists. Debates, committee meetings and public hearings were conducted at taxpayers' expense. Had police forces implemented the resulting law, who knows how many more millions of our dollars would have been spent? Rather wisely, the police chose to pursue real criminals.

Ontario's child-only helmet law is nine years old, so it is reasonable to expect there is overwhelming proof that it worked. Not so: nobody had the elemental foresight to demand that its implementation be monitored and evaluated. So there's no credible evidence that nanny's remedy delivered any benefits.

This comes as no surprise to the folks involved in organized cycling. They cautioned the NDP government that the law would not deliver the 85-per-cent reduction in head injuries its proponents were forecasting. Cyclists advised instead that priority be given to proven accident-prevention measures. Nanny knew better than expert cyclists, however, and went ahead with legislation anyway. (Ironically, Premier Dalton McGuinty was one of the few dissenting backbenchers.)

Fast forward to 2004. The same old zealots can be found espousing the same old discredited claims and the same old sad tales of prematurely departed friends -- as if tragedy only happens to cyclists.

So, dear nanny, I'm older and smarter now. I don't want you to waste more millions pretending that democracy takes its course. You haven't spoken to me in 12 years since you passed your first helmet law and devalued my role as a parent. I may still be your grandson, but I'm no longer your grandchild. I can take care of myself. Go spend your time and our resources doing something useful for Ontarians, such as reducing the size of government; then you will have earned your trip to the retirement home.

Avery Burdett,

Ottawa,

Chairman,

Ontario Coalition

for Better Cycling