CAA South Central Ontario
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| Not for Profit | |
| Industry | Automotive Services |
| Headquarters | Thornhill, Ontario, Canada |
| Parent | Canadian Automobile Association |
| Website | www.caasco.com |
CAA South Central Ontario is an affiliated club of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is a not for profit organization with its head office located in Thornhill. CAA South Central Ontario primarily provides roadside assistance, auto, property & travel insurance services, as well as leisure travel services to its members across Southern and Central Ontario, and including Sault Ste. Marie.
History
The Toronto Automobile Club was founded on May 4, 1903.[1] By this time like-minded motorists were forming their own clubs throughout Ontario to exchange and share information about their vehicles. In 1907 the Toronto Automobile Club and clubs representing Hamilton, Ottawa and Kingston formed the Ontario Motor League (OML) with the purpose of helping automobile owners to lobby governments, as opposition to the automobile was extensive at the time. It had a paid membership from the various clubs of 170 active, and 56 associate, individual members.
The OML set up various committees such as the Legislative and Good Roads Committee and also started a Touring Bureau which informed members where they could drive without getting mired in mud, and which hotels would provide gas and water. New automobile clubs sprang up across Ontario, amalgamating in time with others, but still using the OML as a unifying organization to represent motorists to the government of Ontario. Over time, the names of both the individual clubs and the OML changed. By 1996, the old Toronto Automobile Club was known as CAA Central Ontario, and the OML as CAA Ontario which still exists as a formal organization to help represent the remaining clubs to the Government of Ontario.
In 2005, after mergers with CAA Eastern Ontario, CAA Peterborough, CAA Windsor, CAA Mid-western Ontario and the former CAA South Central Ontario (Hamilton and region), CAA Central Ontario took the name CAA South Central Ontario. It has over 2 million members and covers the entire province except for the Niagara Region (CAA Niagara) and the far north and eastern (including Ottawa) regions of the province (CAA North and East Ontario).[2]
Locations
CAA South Central Ontario covers the City of Toronto, and the following areas in Ontario: Districts of Algoma and Muskoka, Counties of Bruce, Dufferin, Elgin, Essex, Frontenac, Grey, Haliburton, Hastings, Huron, Lambton, Leeds and Grenville, Lennox and Addington, Middlesex, Northumberland, Oxford, Perth, Peterborough, Prince Edward, Simcoe, Wellington and City of Kawartha Lakes, Regional Municipalities of Brant County, Chatham-Kent, Durham, Haldimand-Norfolk, Halton, Hamilton-Wentworth, Peel, Waterloo and York.
References
- ↑ Filey, Mike (2006). Toronto Sketches 9. Toronto, Ont.: Dundurn Group. p. 73. ISBN 9781550026139.
- ↑ "More than 100 Years of History". CAA Overview. CAA South Central Ontario. Retrieved 9 August 2012.