Cigarette makers eager to lie with enemy

So how do we explain those large ads appearing in Canadian newspapers over the past week or so by Imperial Tobacco Ltd., urging parliamentarians and other Canadians to support Bill S-20, which would hit the industry for another $400-million a year to finance a foundation created for the express purpose of reducing the industry's sales? (JTI-Macdonald Corp. will soon launch a similar series of ads.)

Moreover, the ads put the industry in bed with Liberal Senator Colin Kenny and his band of youth antismoking proselytizers who have spent the past five years attacking the industry with all the means at their disposal.

The answer is the tobacco companies' ad campaign is a high-profile manifestation of a major change in approach for the beleaguered industry. As skeptical as we all should be about any apparent change of heart (what heart, you say) on the part of the tobacco industry, it has decided for its own reasons to co-operate with Mr. Kenny and his colleagues.

The result could not only make legislative history, but could also force the Liberal government to deal with the real issues, including its own paltry program to deter youngsters from smoking, instead of ducking behind procedural ones.

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