Noteworthy: Freedom matters but do we really need new smokers?

By Bruce Penton on January 3, 2024.

Who wins if Canada were to adopt a law to make it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born in 2008 or later? It’s being considered, according to reports.

Canadians who don’t take up smoking would win, because they’ll have a better chance of good health and more money in their pockets. The Canadian health-care system would win, because the health-care costs associated with smoking are an “unbelievable burden” on the system, said Andrew Pipe, who doesn’t smoke a pipe but specializes in smoking cessation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Families of non-smokers would win because their loved ones will live longer. Sidewalks, streets, parks and other public places in Canada would win because cigarette butts wouldn’t be strewn around. Who loses? The tobacco industry.

New Zealand’s former PM, Jacinda Ardern recently proposed such a plan for her country, but the current prime minister, Christopher Luxon, is dumping the idea before it has a chance to come into effect. So Canada might be the first country to enact such a ban. Trudeau’s Liberals are apparently in favour. Would Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives think so, too?

Would the tobacco industry organize a Freedom Convoy to stop the government from preventing Canadians from making their own decisions? Or would the exorbitant cost of smoking to our health-care system legitimize a ban on smoking for the current and future generations.

â€¢ Canada’s health-care system is far from perfect, but we’re often reminded that we’re lucky we don’t live in the United States. In Canada, residents of care home facilities (we used to call them old folks’ homes) pay, for the most part, a monthly fee based on their income. Care homes look at a resident’s latest income tax returns and calculate fees from there.

In Canada, it will likely range from $2,000 to $3,000 per month. It’s a different story in the U.S., where some homes charge $5,000 a month, or more, and then add on fees for such things as blood pressure checks ($12), insulin injections ($50), monthly fees for ordering medications from an outside pharmacy ($93) and a fee for daily help with an inhaler ($315). The U.S. info came from a story in the New York Times studying age care.

â€¢ Filmmaker Luke Fandrich’s documentary on the Monarch Theatre, two years in the making, is being shown again this week – Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. – after a successful three-night screening in late December. ‘The documentary, ‘Your Cinema Needs You’, will be released across Canada later this year. The Monarch Theatre’s major renovation, currently being undertaken by the city’s Rotary clubs, is being suspended so this week’s shows can go on. Fandrich’s website, EditingLuke.net, says the two-hour, 15-minute documentary traces the origins of the Monarch Theatre, the rise and fall of its direct competitors and the cinema’s evolution over 112 years since it first opened its doors on Dec. 21, 1911. Tickets may be purchased on EditingLuke.net.

â€¢ The economy, and how it affects the lifespan of an American, is the subject of a book by New York Times’ columnist David Leonhardt, who specializes in economic matters, Poor economic decisions by lawmakers, Leonhardt argues, is one of the reasons the U.S. life expectancy has plummeted to just over 75 years, while other economically strong countries, such as Japan, Germany and, yes, Canada, continue to see increases in life expectancy.

Canada’s is currently a hair below 80 years. Can political decisions made by Canadian politicians have an effect on that number? Leonhardt writes: “… (The) modern American economy … an ongoing battle between two competing forms of capitalism: one that envisions prosperity for most, and one that serves the individual and favours the wealthy.”

â€¢ Colton Kambeitz of Medicine Hat did more than just hum the song ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” He made it happen. Kambeitz certainly gets the prize for ingenuity, hauling four truckloads of snow scraped from the ice surface of the Hockey Hounds arena Christmas Eve to cover his front lawn in time for Christmas morning, ensuring his three children would have, against all odds, a white Christmas.

Seven-year-old James looked outside on Christmas morning and reportedly announced “Something is fishy,” since his home was the only one on the block with snow on the lawn.

â€¢ Medicine Hat has had 29 green Christmases in the 68 years since 1955, according to Government of Canada weather records.