Mr. Speaker, research tells us that tobacco product advertising tends to associate smoking with a wide range of desirable traits: beauty, popularity and even health. Research also shows that young people are twice as likely to be influenced by cigarette advertising as they are by peer pressure.
In recognition of the impact of tobacco advertising on youth, the U.S. FDA is banning all tobacco company sponsorships.
To date the government has done nothing. Why? Is it because the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has a big Imperial Tobacco plant in her riding? Is it because the Minister of Finance was a member of the board of Imasco and expressed concern over the health of the tobacco industry at the time that tobacco taxes were being debated in 1994? Is it because the Liberal senator from South Shore, Nova Scotia, is on the board-