“Dear Candidate: With an election approaching, mychoice.ca would like to provide you with an opportunity to share with the province’s 1.8 million adult smokers your views on issues that concern them. Please take a moment to fill out the following short questionnaire and return it to us by email.  Thank you for your time and participation.

Nancy Daigneault, President, Mychoice.ca”
Ontario 2007 Election – Candidates’ Survey

1.  Do smokers have rights?

Yes
Yes, smokers have rights like all individuals.  They have a right to do what they want with their lives and smoke with people who are accepting of their smoking.  They own their own lives and bodies and are responsible for their own health.

2.  Should laws promote cooperation and mutual respect?

Yes
Yes, laws that protect basic rights should promote a  cooperative voluntary free society that is based on respect for individual liberty and property rights and mutually agreed contracts.   People should be free to associate with whom they like and business owners should be allowed to set the rules allowing or not allowing smoking on
their property.

3.  The provincial government has broken its own law and provides smoking shelters attached to its casinos to retain customers?   Should this option be available to others?

Yes
Yes, this is total hypocrisy.   Many people are not going to stop smoking.   Governments should not be allowed to interfere in businesses to prevent them from setting aside space for smokers.   The government of Ontario needs to be controlled by the people of Ontario.  Its power needs to be restrained
because its abuses of freedom and property rights will only increase if electors keep sending it approving signals for what it is doing.  The other parties need to be sent the same message, which is why supporting and getting involved with the Libertarian Party will help.

4.  Fewer than 20 of Ontario’s 600+ long-term care facilities are now    able to maintain smoking rooms because regulations governing     exemptions for these homes are too restrictive. Should steps be taken  to help these homes provide safe and secure smoking rooms/shelters to their residents?

Yes
Yes, absolutely.   People should be especially careful to show proper respect for the freedom and choices of the elderly who want to smoke, and those who are suffering from illness.   Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.   If you try to push people around using the government, expect the same to be done to
you.   If people want to use the government to control others including elderly and disabled people, and treat them like they’re just garbage to be pushed around, then expect others to do the same to you when you are also helpless and dependent.   All the major parties in Ontario plus the Greens are either actively promoting this kind of authoritarian society or are letting it happen.   Support the Libertarians.

5.  Would you consider changes to the law to permit smokers designated      venues where they can go to smoke without imposing on non smokers?

Yes
Yes, I would. And I would also push to abolish the Ontario government’s smoking bans and fight future attempts to expand the smoking ban to homes and cars.

6.  Are smokers entitled to equal access to the health care system?

Yes
Yes, depending on what this means.  Ideally people should pay for their own health care and the results of their own lifestyles, either through some kind of free market insurance system or directly or through voluntary private aid.  The current socialist health care model is failing due to its very nature, so government is using this excuse to introduce authoritarian measures to try to save an authoritarian health care system which restricts choice.   The bottom line for me however, is that even with this health care system,  smokers are paying more than enough in tobacco tax to cover their medical conditions!

7.  Should smokers face discrimination when seeking a job or a home?

No
No, I would say they should not, not generally.  They should be free to discriminate against smokers, but it’s probably unfair in many cases.  It’s too oppressive to be discriminating against smokers unless there is a good reason.   I think people are all thinking like little dicators and should learn to negotiate with people and work out guideliness for their own space.  The person’s private life is their own business and the employer’s space is theirs for setting their rules in that space.   The two should negotiate if there are conflicts.   Learn to live and let live.   The government picks up on our controlling attitudes to others and fails to respect the freedom of smokers.

8.  Should the government ban people from smoking inside their own home?

No
No, absolutely not.   Not their homes, nor their cars.  This is their own space.  This is their private property.    How can anyone say it’s “their own home” if the government is ruling over it?    That’s nonsense.    Libertarians stand for property rights.  This is a concept based on traditional natural rights.   This is the way people are naturally.  They know that they are responsible for how they live in their homes and how they are with their families and this is their space.   Liberty means personal responsibility.   Concerns about second-hand smoke are also blown way out of proportion, and it appears that the goal is really to violate the personal property and personal space of individuals wherever laws like this are proposed.  Authoritarianism is the goal – where people are reduced to obedient slaves – and erasing the concept of personal sovereignty and propery rights are the means to this goal.     Our society’s progress towards greater authoritarianism is continuing and Ontarians should be more alarmed about this, and bring their government
under control.   Tell their politicians to leave people alone, and start reducing taxes and stop passing legislation.
To get involved with the Libertarian Party provincially and federally, contact …

October 6th, 2007

2 comments to Questions from MyChoice.ca on Anti-Smoking Oppression

• Paul

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:53 am

I applaud the recent changes to the smoking laws as I think that there are true health hazards with this habit. I do however take some issue with the way that non-smokers (NS) vilify smokers (S). Firstly, the government and other private agencies have literally spent MILLIONS of dollars on campaigns designed to get people to quit smoking – good for them, it is working. Here are some things I think we should all consider…
1) The number of homeless in Canada continues to increase. No roof over their head and they could freeze to death, but hey at least they don’t smoke.
2) The number of under-nourished children in Canada continues to get worse. They may starve to death, but at least tobacco won’t kill them.
3) Toronto, Abbotsford, and several other cities have had a record number of air pollution warnings in past years. So bad that people are told not to go outside or they could DIE. Well the pollution from industry might kill ya, but at least tobacco won’t.
4) Canadians continue to purchase a record number of SUV’s and vehicles that throw THOUSANDS of tons of toxins in the air every year… In fact did you know that a 4 cylinder car puts more toxins in the air in a day than a smoker in a year? Well, at least tobacco won’t kill them.
5) The number of women being diagnosed with breast cancer is on the rise, funny that most of them live in high pollution centres like major cities… AH well, at least tobacco won’t kill them.
6) All those SUV’s, flights to exotic places are destroying our world. Our children will probably live to see the flooding of New York, But hey tobacco won’t kill them.
7) It is estimated that we drive one species to extinction every day as we chop down trees and clear land to make paper and build our big fancy homes. But hey tobacco won’t kill you.
The rate of global warming is so serious that the world’s weather patterns are changing to a point that millions are dying from starvation and disease caused by droughts, floods, etc. But hey at least tobacco is not killing them.
9) We go to war to fight for oil, and thousands die, just so we can keep buying all our nice things, drive our SUV’s and take our trips.
But hey… yup that’s right tobacco won’t kill us.
My point is…
The next time you get off the plane from your exotic vacation, where you bought some items for dirt cheap made in a third world country by children, and get into your SUV that costs $100 to fill a tank that lasts a week, and you drive to your 2000 square foot home that costs hundreds to heat a month, and you throw out all that food that went to waste in your fridge (could have fed a family in Africa for a week), and you take a hot shower for 1/2 an hour using all that fresh water (more than some will see in a life time), and then clean your shower with those chemicals that make your life easier but are poison (it says
right on the bottle not to drink them) and wash them down the drain, then crawl into your nice warm bed for a restful night… think twice before you tell off a non-smoker.
The reality is, you are no better than they are.

• canadian

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 am

Thanks for your comments.

Anti-smoking laws are created by control freaks and there are a lot of those.

1) 2) Poverty is caused by taxes, licensing, and regulations that prevent Canadians from having economic freedom and real property rights.

3) 5) No legal protection for property rights and personal health means pollution runs amok, because governments are there to protect and subsidize big industries – such as the subsidy announced for Ford in Ontario this week

4) This may or may not be true about the amount of toxins, but government subsidizes the auto industry and the highway system – with our taxes.

6) I don’t believe SUV’s are going to cause mass flooding.

7. “We” would like to chop down trees and use these resources in a sustainable way with respect for the natural rights of indigenous people and others – property rights in other words.
I think the assertion about global warming causing drought etc. is questionable. War and politics and privileged oligarchies are causing these disasters.

Yes, “we” pay taxes to these criminals to launch their wars, which are really about controlling resources which don’t belong to them. “The Secret History of the American Empire” by John Perkins deals with this subject from a left-wing point of view but it is a real eye-opener.

9) Is a person’s worth to be measured by how little enjoyment they have? I think people should find a way to make ethical decisions in life that respect other peoples’ rights and make judgements about who they do business with. But we also have to recognize the government tax-paying cage we’re forced to live with and try to resist it but not just blame ourselves. We need to get some control over our own lives, but how can we do this if we’re going to feel guilty for shopping. Our wealth is stolen from us.