A Smoke-Free Province

No Smoking. Smoking Prohibited. Non-Smoking Area Only. It's official now here in Ontario. The whole damn province has become a NO SMOKING zone. The guys at work were talking about the new legislation, which takes effect today.

"Where's a guy supposed to smoke now?" asked one.

"You can't even have a puff outdoors," said another. "And you can't smoke in bars or pubs or restaurants."

Someone threw a newspaper at me.

"Here. Read this, Doc. It's enough ta make ya puke right where ya sit. This government's gettin' pretty high and mighty tellin' me I can't have a smoke down the pub. The bar owners are pretty pissed off too. They're gonna lose a lot of business over this."

I glanced at the article, Ms J, but as you know, I'm not a fan of newspapers. Or any news media, really. It's all the same. All shite. Opinions. Propaganda. Dire predictions of doom. Another stupid act of violence or another stupid army aiming their stupid guns in another stupid war. Shite.

Anyway, I skimmed the article and this is what I learned:

The government of the province of Ontario has enacted sweeping new laws and new changes to anti-smoking legislation. Effective today, nine million Ontarians will have access to completely smokefree environments at work, in ALL public places, including outdoor common areas such as restaurant and bar patios, bus stops, train platforms and outdoor sporting events.

Seems to me, Ms J, that if you're going to smoke, you'd better do it at home. Unless of course the wife won't let you smoke in the house, or around the kids. In that case, I reckon you're well and truly screwed. You might want to consider quitting.

And as for our benevolent politicians, who are so concerned for our health ... Well they're not fooling me. For if our government really gave a damn about our health, they wouldn't simply ban smoking, they'd ban tobacco.

I won't hold my breath, Ms Journal, (pun intended) because they stand to lose BILLIONS of tax dollars. I quit smoking about six years ago. Cigs were about six bucks for a pack of twenty-five. Today, the same package costs nearly eight dollars. More than half of it is tax. Canadians are among the highest taxed populace in the world. We're taxed to death, quite literally. Let's show the government we're fed up and we won't take it anymore.

Why don't we all quit smoking? Yeah. That'd show 'em, wouldn't it?

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