A National Motorcycle Association – Is it important to YOU?

As most of us as motorcycle riders come to the end of yet another Canadian riding season the following months will see many of us reflecting on memories of rides taken, close encounters avoided or collisions incurred from careless car drivers or even perhaps post sport racing injuries.

For all of the months that we were riding, very few of us spared thoughts of what we really need, a strong national motorcycle group that will support your future needs. In the background for years a few people have strived to influence those within government, industry and many other agencies with efforts that would improve the needs of all riders across the country. Thousands of hours have been spent lobbying for changes for riders to improve safety however change only comes with large support from riders behind the action.

Maybe now it’s time during the next snowy months that YOU stop thinking of being a total individual rider and YOU take some responsibility to improve motorcycling in Canada. It doesn’t take too much. In fact doing without one, repeat ONE, ‘Tims’ or Starbucks coffee once a week for just the winter months will give you, and thousands like you, the opportunity to really do some good for biking. That money will buy you ownership into a national motorcycle group and thus with all of us riding together for a common cause we can make real change.

With over 672,000 registered motorcycles and possibly 500,000 active licensed riders in this vast country we can have a strong national organization similar to other countries like the US, UK, Australia, France and Sweden just to name a few. In these named proactive ‘associations’ around the world they work with politicians both national and local to undertake road safety initiatives and combine this with information to all riders thus leading to a safer roads and a more positive view on ‘bikers’. There has been some similar work undertaken here, in fact a futuristic view on national motorcycle safety was published a few years ago in Ottawa. This work is currently stalled in bureaucracy and without funds from a strong effective national rider group to get active I doubt if many of the forward looking recommendations will see the light of day before 2030 never mind 2020.

In every provincial jurisdiction only through better education thrust on car drivers can we hope for less ‘left turners’ and, on the other side, active responsible enforcement by police on those riders who still insist on unnecessary speed and/or drink and ride will casualty figures lower for the following year. Over 40% of all motorcycle fatalities are preventable and, as each of us care for motorcycling surely, each of us have a task to undertake better safety. We know that by riding on two wheels we are taking bigger risks in traffic than sitting in an enclosed four-wheeled object that has more distracting tools than ever imaged by Henry Ford, we accept that risk but demand better car drivers.

Many years ago one could say that Canada was well served with a strong national association after the formation of the Canadian Motorcycle Association (CMA) in 1946. A few years later after joining the world motorcycle federation (FIM) Canadian riders could now get licensed to complete on the world stage and bring recognition to the many great riders both on and off road. We need that link to the FIM as now all the disciplines of motorcycling including safety, the environment, all sporting, touring and many others come under their jurisdiction and each country has one voting say in how these are undertaken.

Canada has had an active role for safety within the FIM in recent years but lack of funding has recently prevented us in re-joining the FIM road safety commission. Safety in Canada is not new, in fact the strength of our national riding was brought to the world forefront in 1967 when an Englishman named Stuart Munroe brought together the skills he learned and started in Ottawa a program now recognized as a world leader of motorcycle training for new riders — Gearing Up — run by the Canada Safety Council (CSC). The program was ‘exported’ to the USA and is now run by their Motorcycle Safety Foundation. It is mainly through our CSC excellent training program that our new riders get introduced to motorcycling. It is unfortunate, however, that differing to new drivers taking out membership in the CAA to add enjoyment what is different about Canadian ‘bikers is that perhaps less than 1% of new riders take time to join a strong national motorcycle association.

What is even more disturbing is that it is possible than even less than 1% of this 1% are active and putting back into motorcycling some of what they have gained from their riding experiences over the year. Does this apply to YOU? If so, then this is the reason why WE as riders do not have a strong national group. We do still have the remnants of the original formation of the CMA in 1946 but arguably with only about 7,000 members across the country the strength has diminished to a near skeleton with little body no financial strength that has seriously curtailed much of the work that needs to be done. In those intervening near seven decades the CMA has been there for various aspects of motorcycling both for pleasure and most aspects of motorcycle sport activities. Those decades have seen some poor judgement decisions and switches between one sport and another generally depending on where money that year was coming from other disciplines that left others to decline over the years. Road racing was one of the CMA strengths however nowadays there is only a few races that can claim to have CMA exposure and support of any kind.

Most Canadian riders can be said to be individuals and not ‘groopies’ and this is clearly seen when you look at winter sports groups e.g. Ontario Snowmobile Association who association has real leadership and real funding both from riders and government. Maybe WE as riders have to take a page out of their book and review how we operate and get properly organized with professional leaders.

Within the last ten years we do now have a new national organization in the name of the Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada (MCC) that was formed presumably to counteract some of what was seen to be the shortcomings of the status quo. In the first few years the group looked like it was “out of the gate running” with thousands of ‘silent’ members each year however the flow of money into the organization came to a sudden stop due to regulations by the world motorcycle federation. This of course influenced the growth of the MCC and in this current year they do not have the widespread support needed to show the world federation that they truly represent the needs of the Canadian riders.

There is really no doubt we do need a national group to support riders, you only need to look to motorcycle parking by-laws in cities such as Toronto or noise by-laws in Quebec to know that there is strength in numbers to speak to causes that effect all of us.

We also need a voice within government as they are the ones who can really prevent our enjoyment and freedom on two wheels. In today’s day and age two wheeled transport is a very valuable form of transport being both economic and eco friendly compared to our four wheeled cousins. The voices of the FIM and the other major European motorcycle group FEMA is being heard across several continents on topics such as environment, road barrier safety and integration with other future ‘intelligent traffic’ movement and we here in Canada have a part to play with those voices. It cannot be done without support your support.

Canada is known as a passive nation but as riders we are perceived by many as being rough, ready and 1%. Until we as riders unite and show our concerns to grow our sporting organizations we will be left with two ineffective and perhaps inept groups, one with history but lack of membership and some say ineffective leadership, and the other, a new concerned group lacking funding but showing concern seeking change for the future of Canadian motorcycling.

National representation — Do we need it? The answer was first seen in the words on a world war recruitment poster saying “Your Country needs you”. Now, what are you prepared to do ?