By Arthur Weinreb
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The Ontario government announced on Tuesday that government run casinos in Windsor and Niagara Falls will be allowed to build outdoor smoking rooms in order to keep their smoking clientele happy. These self contained rooms are prohibited for bars and restaurants under the Smoke Free Ontario Act that came into force last June with much fanfare. Jim Watson, who holds the cutesy and politically correct title of Minister of Health Promotion, vigorously defended the province's move saying that unlike bars and restaurants, the primary function of casinos is gambling and not the consumption of food and beverages. Watson never did explain why gamblers who smoke are less likely to suffer adverse affects from smoking and second hand smoke than those who simply eat and drink. Perhaps one day, he will enlighten us. Watson also made the point that employees of the casino will not have to enter these smoking rooms. Perhaps the rooms will be cleaned and the cigarette butts removed by divine intervention.
The best comment about Watson's pronouncement came from NDP health critic Shelley Martel who said that it was "bad optics". Martel, while a member of Bob Rae's cabinet, told a Thunder Bay municipal councillor that she had confidential information about a Sudbury doctor who engaged in illegal billing practices. When the councillor went to the media Martel said she didn't breach confidentiality because she made it all up and then went and took a polygraph test to prove that she had lied. Shelley knows bad optics.
And that's all it is -- bad optics. Those that expressed shock at the government's announcement and screamed about the double standard simply don't understand Liberals and liberals. Liberals see nothing inconsistent about banning smoking from bars and restaurants while providing it in casinos.
Many of the lemmings were led to believe that the Smoke Free Ontario Act was passed because the government was concerned about the health of Ontarians. The legislation was not about health; it was all about "them" and this week's announcement proved it. Clamping down on Ontarians who consume a legal product was for the sole purpose of making the Liberals feel good about themselves. They sleep better at night knowing that they are making the world a safer place. But they certainly have no intention of decreasing their revenues by totally banning smoking. This is the typical mantra of liberals -- do what I say, not what I do. Just look at Al Gore who pumps thousands of tons of fossil fuel into the air while travelling around warning of the danger of fossil fuels.
We all remember the propaganda that government spewed about how once smoking was banned in restaurants and bars, all those people who stayed away because of second hand smoke will start frequenting these establishments and business would improve. That of course isn't true and never was true. It comes as no surprise that we don't hear the government make that argument when it comes to casinos. There never was a law that required restaurants and bars to allow smoking. If that proposition was true as the lefties claim many of these establishments would have gone smoke-free years before they were legislated to do so. The reality is that revenues go down when smoking is banned and our "caring" Liberal government is not about to allow their revenue to tank.
We also have to remember that besides being feel-good liberals, we have one of the most dishonest governments in history. We have just heard Premier McGuinty explain that he was not sightseeing in India at the Taj Mahal when he was sightseeing at the Taj Mahal (apparently you simply cannot do business in India unless you have actually seen the Taj Mahal). And McGuinty's the guy who promised not to raise taxes, then imposed a health tax that he denied was a tax and called it a premium until he found out that that would cost his government money and he called it a tax. The move to allow smoking in rooms at casinos was a typical Liberal move that should surprise no one who has been paying any attention.
It would be refreshingly honest if Jim Watson's ministry was changed to, perhaps, the Ministry of Government Revenues Promotion. But honesty and the McGuinty government do not go together.
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