Mr. Speaker, I have listened to about an hour's worth of absolute balderdash, which is the nicest word I can use, coming from the opposite benches defending the indefensible. It is absolutely shameless. What can we do to shame these people? How do we go about doing it? I think it is impossible. What could be beyond it?
After this Parliament commenced in the fall of 1993 we had,as members will recall, great lawlessness in the smuggling of tobacco. What does the government do? Does it say "wait a
minute, you cannot be breaking the law here, folks, and you will obey the law from coast to coast"? Because the government could not enforce it, it gave in to it. It reduced the price 50 per cent or more for a package of cigarettes. That broke the back of smuggling but I will tell you what it also did. Does any member opposite have any idea of the notion of price elasticity? The lower the price, the higher the demand. The higher price, the lower the demand. It is a law of marketing. It is there. It is a fact. It is irrefutable.
What did the government opposite do? It lowered the price. What happened? Demand went up. Then what did it do? It said on its holiest of holy grails: "We are going to change the packaging". Did that happen? No.
Then the government said it was going to gradually increase the price over the next couple of years. Did that happen? No. Prices stayed where they were. The federal government, through the Supreme Court, not only has the right, it has the responsibility to legislate advertising standards around the tobacco issue.
Do members remember when tobacco companies, through a Supreme Court ruling, were allowed to advertise? The Supreme Court said it was up to the federal government to write legislation that would prevent it. It is not up to the Supreme Court to interpret legislation in a manner that prevents it.
Where in this legislation about preventing tobacco advertising in a manner that will affect the most vulnerable which are, of course, children? Please show me where word one is in restricting tobacco advertising that could be used to influence children.
I recognize that the member opposite, the Secretary of State (Multiculturalism)(Status of Women) for Vancouver Centre, herself a medical doctor, understands and appreciates the necessity of reducing smoking. I am not suggesting for a moment that members opposite do not understand or appreciate it. I am saying that if they are going to be apologists for the tobacco industry, at least do it honestly and say there is nothing they can do about it.
It is the hypocrisy of this that just drives me crazy. To listen to the members opposite talking about how bad cigarette advertising and tobacco are for the health of Canadians and do absolutely nothing about it is just beyond the pale.