TORONTO — Speed limiter compliance in Ontario and Quebec is pretty much a forgone conclusion. But is the rule absolutely untouchable?

Perhaps not if the Progressive Conservatives win the next provincial election with Frank Klees as their party leader.

Klees, a former transport minister under the Harris government and a vocal critic of speed limiter legislation, is vying for his party’s leadership, which will be chosen on June 27.

While he’s trailing in the polls to frontrunner Christine Elliott (wife of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty) and Tim Hudak. The more conservative Klees is banking on coming up the middle if his opponents split the vote of the liberal-minded wing of the party.

He recently told todaystrucking.com that if selected leader he would "order a review of the impact of speed limiters on road safety and the industry." (Hard, roadside enforcement kicks-in on July 1).

Frank Klees

If the review presents evidence that the rule has had a negative effect to road and truck safety, he says he "would not hesitate to repeal it."

As he claimed during legislative debates, Klees told us that theMinistry of Transportation didn’t properly consider all the evidence before recommending the policy, including a series of Transport Canada studies that concluded there are several safety and enforcement-related concerns with a mandatory speed limiter rule.

Furthermore, they didn’t give MPPs the opportunity to review such literature before they voted on the bill.

"I believe this was a error on the part of the government to ram this bill through without the proper consultation and without the all the information being made available," says Klees.

Echoing arguments made for years by independent driver groups like OBAC and OOIDA, Klees says the McGuinty regime’s goal was to deflect the responsibility of speed enforcement.

"The day this bill was introduced I said we already have speed limiters in Ontario. They’re called speed limits," says Klees.

Asked if he’d be willing to band with fellow candidate Randy Hiller –the populist, rural-issues advocate from southwest Ontario — to press the issue with whoever the leader is in the event neither he or Hiller wins the race, Klees said pointedly: "I expect to win."