Ladies and Gentlemen.

It's a pleasure for me to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

It's also a pleasure for me to be addressing you at this very important time. It's an important time in the history of our battle - a battle which, sadly, is still being waged.

The battle is still being fought, even though the evidence is clear.

Even though the facts are beyond dispute. Even though physicians and scientists in this country and throughout the world have set the record straight. Even though courts, and lawmakers have spoken in crystal-clear terms. Even though ordinary people in every part of the world are turning their backs on tobacco, denouncing it, struggling to recover from the harm it has done to them.

Despite all of this, the battle continues. And it is about to be joined.

I occasionally like to quote Winston Churchill - which is perhaps a little bit awkward on this occasion as he one of history's most famous cigar smokers. I always assume he didn't inhale! Churchill once said :  "Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Churchill was speaking at the Lord Mayor's Day Luncheon in London on November 10^th, 1942.

In the preceding months, World War II had taken a very different complexion. Momentum slowly began to shift; enemies no longer seemed as strong; a new sense of confidence was slowly starting to emerge among the populace.

Churchill sensed these changes. And he did everything in his power to fuel them. He seemed to recognize that a critical point had been reached, and that the events at hand could well determine how the war would unfold. He turned out to be correct.

That's the way I feel about our battle. In the past few years, things have turned. The momentum has shifted. We've always occupied the moral high ground. Now we also occupy the strategic high ground.

In that same speech in November of 1942, Churchill also said that in every war, Britain always wins at least one battle - the last one.
Ladies and gentlemen, our battle is a battle I want to win. It's a battle we have to win.

I'd like to use my remarks today to tell you about how I see this battle shaping up. About the issues at stake. About the array of strategic weaponry at our disposal. And about how I, and the government in which I serve, intend not only to participate but to lead.

I've got a reputation as a bit of a scrapper - at least that's what I hear from time to time. And I suppose there may be some truth to that. In the gay hockey league in which I play, I was the recipient of the Tonya Harding Award -- and I'm actually kind of proud of that!

When pushed, I don't mind pushing back, whether it's on or off the ice.

In the battle against tobacco, it's time to push back. And I'm here today to tell you that I'm going to put all the energy, creativity, and leadership I have into this battle. Not just because I want to win, but because we have to win. People's lives are at stake.
During the last election campaign, my leader, Dalton McGuinty presented Ontarians with a very clear platform. And the people of this province have now entrusted us with the responsibility of living up to those commitments.

Let me tell you what he said during last fall's election campaign.

On page 19 of our party's Health Care Platform, Dalton McGuinty promised that a Liberal government would address "the number one killer in Ontario with an aggressive plan to reduce smoking."

That's a direct quote. And he promised direct action to back it up.

Direct action consisting of the following :

1. real prevention,
2. tougher controls including a ban on countertop and behind-the-counter retail displays,
3. better access to smoking cessation medications to help smokers quit,
4. a peer-to-peer anti-smoking campaign by and for youth,
5. and a commitment to make all public and work places 100% smoke free within three years.

To anyone who pretends to be surprised by what we're doing, I'd encourage them to look at the Platform document I'm reading from.

Take a look at the commitments we made to people last fall. We were very clear about what we intended to do. And in case anyone missed it, we said it again in the Throne Speech.

Dalton McGuinty is, above all, a man of his word; his fundamental decency is his underpinning. We will keep these commitments. People's lives are at stake.

We've set the bar high.

Commitment number five - making all public and work places smoke free - is something many would shy away from. We're not. In the battle against tobacco, Ontario will lead the way!

We intend to transform this province, and we intend to be leaders - trailblazers - that the rest of the country can look to. When it comes to the battle against smoking, Ontario will set the pace.

I remember presenting these commitments to voters in my riding of Toronto Centre-Rosedale, and seeing the enthusiastic reaction they received. At the time, it never occurred to me that I'd be the one helping to make them happen.

I can't imagine a more exciting, or a more important, challenge.

Before I go into a bit more detail about what we're doing, let me take a moment to answer the bigger question: why are we doing it?

The answer is clear. I'm not going to read you a list of tobacco statistics. This is one audience that certainly doesn't need that.

Instead, let me tell you about how our anti-smoking initiative fits into a broader health and wellness campaign which is central to what I'm trying to achieve as Health Minister.

My fundamental message to Ontarians is that we have to take more personal responsibility for our own health. One of the challenges I face - we all face - is that a lot of us take 'health' for granted.
We take hospitals for granted. And we take our own health for granted. This has to change.

When I talk about personal responsibility, I mean that we all have to take responsibility - as professionals, as parents, as teachers, as employers, as legislators. We need to change policy so that the healthy choices become the easy choices.

Good health isn't something you can pick off the shelf at a hospital. And you can't just "fill up your tank" when you visit your doctor.

The bottom line is that people have to change their attitudes toward health.

And, yes, the health care system needs to change.

A lesson I've learned very clearly over the past six months is that, in this province we don't really have a ’health care system’. We have a 'sick care' system. We have to provide true ’health care’.

As I said a moment ago, we need to take more personal responsibility for our own health. We have to find a way to get people thinking about their own health and wellness before they're diagnosed with high blood pressure. Before they have a cancer scare. Before they realize that walking up a flight of stairs takes the wind out of them.

People have to take steps to improve their diet. We have to take vigorous steps to combat childhood obesity. We have to give people the information, the support, and the incentives they need to make the right choices.

We can't do it for them - but we can certainly make it easier for them.

And we have to protect people from second-hand smoke. And prevent others from starting to smoke. And help those who do smoke to quit.

I know how tough quitting can be, not from first-hand experience thankfully, but from watching others. I also know it can be done. A close colleague and good friend of mine, our province's Finance Minister Greg Sorbara, used to smoke a lot. He would take great offence at the term ”chain smoker,” so let me just say that he was a very heavy smoker.

If Greg Sorbara was ever late for a Cabinet meeting we all knew where to find him : huddled in the doorway outside the east doors of Queen's Park, furiously puffing away on a cigarette.

But he quit. In fact, he wrote a lengthy piece for the Globe and Mail recently explaining why he quit and urging other to do the same. I'm proud of Greg, and I applaud his act of personal leadership.

Greg Sorbara's reasons for quitting were similar to most people's. But, as Finance Minister, he also has some unique insight into the costs of smoking. Let me share some numbers with you.

The chronic health problems directly resulting from smoking are a huge drain on our health care system and on our economy.

At least 5% of Ontario's health care costs are directly related to harm caused by smoking. That's 5% of around $30 billion! And that's not including expenditures borne by private drug plans, disability insurers, and the money people pay out of their own pockets.

Tobacco kills more people in one day than died during the entire SARS epidemic.
And the broader costs to the economy are equally frightening. Tobacco costs our economy more that $2.6 billion annually in productivity losses.

But the real cost of tobacco cannot be measured in dollars and cents -- but in lives lost and families shattered.

Our battle against tobacco will be fought on three fronts.

First, we're going to prevent young people from taking up smoking.

We're going to do this by making cigarettes more expensive and harder to purchase. In fact, we've already increased taxes on cigarettes by $2.50 a carton.

We're going to do it by bringing in tough controls on tobacco advertising, especially where kids can see it. The reality is that tobacco companies do target their ads at kids - just pick up a copy of any teen magazine on the news stand and look at the cigarette ads.

Here's a magazine I picked up in an airport in the U.S. last weekend. Judging by the cover, it's not aimed at middle aged guys like me! And here's who advertises in this magazine.

I realize that here in Canada we've taken steps to ban this kind of advertising. But it continues to spill across our border.

We're also going to ’educate’ kids. I know that sounds ambitious, so let me tell you a little bit more about what we're planning.

Kids are a tough audience. As someone who does a lot of public speaking, I know that! But there are ways to speak to kids that are convincing and compelling -- advertisers have been doing it for years. Advertisers including the tobacco industry!

A crucial and central part of our campaign will be peer-to-peer communication. We'll let young people tell their own story -- and we will fund them and encourage them. We will unleash their creative talent and their enormous capacity!

Kids are on the right side of this issue! We need to see them as key allies, not just an audience. It's time to stop talking at them, and let them do the talking.

Some of you may be familiar with 'Smokescreen,' a Health Canada campaign launched by the Access to Media Education Society to raise awareness about the high smoking rate among preteen and teenage girls in Canada. I'd like to tell you a little more about it - this is a story we can all learn from.

According to the 2000-2001 Canadian Community Health Survey by Statistics Canada, 15- to 17-year-old girls are more likely to start smoking than boys of the same age.

This program, Smokescreen, paid for 24 teenage girls in B.C. and the Yukon to attend a 10-day filmmaking course, then allowed them to create anti-smoking ads aimed at underage girls. Ads by young girls, for young girls.

And ten of the ads these girls produced are now airing on TV.

Astonishingly, the CBC has refused to play one of the ads, an ad entitled Agent Tobacco. It's an ad that takes aim at the marketing practices of the tobacco industry, specifically their predatory interest in young people. Shockingly, the CBC decided to pull the ad because apparently they weren't convinced that the tobacco industry targets underage youth!

Let me be very clear : we are going to shine a bright light on the marketing practices of the tobacco industry. We're going to expose what they do, and we're going to educate kids about what they do.

And if dedicated, bright, creative kids can help us to deliver this message, I will make sure that their message gets out - with or without the CBC's help!

Another part of our prevention strategy is to make it harder for the tobacco companies to find clever ways to subvert the advertising ban. If any you have been to the Air Canada Centre in the past few months, you couldn't miss the tobacco display.

Another battlefield is the courtroom. And, together with the Attorney General Michael Bryant, you're going to see us moving confidently on this front as well.

Prevention is goal Number One. Number Two is Protection; specifically protecting those who don't smoke from the dangers of tobacco.

Our smoking ban in public and work places is a big part of this protection effort.

During the Legislature's fall session, I will be introducing legislation to bring this smoking ban into effect.

I can tell you this : ours will be one of the toughest and most comprehensive smoking bans in the world. And my world includes California, Ireland, New York City, Massachusetts, and Florida.

In case you're wondering, yes, we fully expect a spirited counter-offensive including legal challenges.
The goal of the tobacco industry is to prevent legislation, and when that fails their goal is to delay it, and to water it down.

We're prepared for that.

That's why we're drafting this bill very carefully and methodically. And if our opponents want yet another long, expensive legal battle they'll get one.

The reality is that smoke-free spaces are healthier spaces.

Last weekend, the Sunday New York Times ran a story about the air quality in bars and restaurants a year after the city's smoking ban came into effect. In a sampling of Manhattan taverns the average concentration of tiny particles, soot, was 25 micorgrams per cubic meter of air.
In cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, where smoking is still allowed, the average particulate concentration was almost 300 - more than ten times higher! And late at night, the levels in smoking bars would rise bars, often topping 400, 600, and in one case 1,000.

As all of you know, the battle against second-hand smoke has, thus far, been fought primarily by municipalities. And they've done terrific work. In fact, over 80% of Ontario is now covered by some form of smoking bans.

Many of you here in this audience have been on the front lines of these battles. If I had medal to give out, you'd be receiving a lot of them! It's time to build on these successes. It's time for Ontario to join your battle. As I said at the outset, it's time for Ontario to lead!

We will create uniformity across all municipalities. The days of tobacco companies, and their front groups, playing municipalities off against one another will come to an end.

We also intend to launch a dramatic education campaign about the dangers of second-hand smoke and the vital importance of our smoking ban. This message has been delivered with great effectiveness and success by many of our partners - by many of you.

It's time to deliver it with greater consistency and co-ordination.

First :  Prevention.     Second : Protection.

Third, we're going to help people quit.

Within only a few hours of quitting, your risk of having a stroke drops by about 40%. After one day, your risk of a heart attack begins to decrease.

So we're going to launch a comprehensive program to help smokers quit. For those who need medical help, we're going to make it easier to obtain. We'll offer self-help programs for those who want to go it alone. And we'll use the media to help encourage those whose determination may occasionally fail.

These are our three goals :

- prevention,
- protection and
- cessation.

And we will pursue them with every means at our disposal, including innovative and effective new programs, litigation, and changes to our economic and tax policies, and legislation.

Let me tell you a little bit about our timelines.

We will be introducing legislation this coming fall. And over the course of the next three years, the various components will come into force. We committed to making all public and work place smoke-free within three years. I'd like to beat that target!

Another important part of every battle is knowing your opponent.

Let me take a moment to talk about ”Big Tobacco” as I like to call them. Some of you may have noticed that they're not represented here in this room. They wanted to be here. But when I saw that they were scheduled to be part of this Conference, I contacted the organizers and asked that they be un-invited.

Although they're not in the room, I know they're listening.

Here's what we can expect from ’Big Tobacco’ in the months ahead. They will resist these changes. They'll fight back. They'll throw obstacles in our path. And they'll mobilize restaurant and bar owners.

They'll recruit high-priced lobbyists and lawyers, and launch legal challenges and Charter challenges.

The reason the tobacco industry is fighting so ferociously is because the stakes are high. They sell a product which is cheap to produce, addictive, and generates fantastic brand loyalty. And the profits are staggering. No wonder they're fighting.

That's what this battle is really about for them: profits. Profits on the backs of people who are crippled and killed by what they sell them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've been through these fights before. And I'm ready for them.

And I'm extremely proud to, once again, draw attention to the person who will be at my side during the upcoming battle: Ontario's new Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sheela Basrur. Sheela couldn't be here today. But I can guarantee that we'll be seeing a lot of her in the coming months.

She's been through these battles before. She's a leader. The public trusts her. And "Big Tobacco" fears her. She someone I want on my side - and I'm very proud that she's agreed to work with us on this cause.

Let me take a moment to recognize a few other groups and individuals in the audience who are central to this effort.

Gar Mahood and the Non-Smokers' Rights Association. Michael Perley and the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco. The ’Big 3’ : The Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Lung Association. The Ontario Medical Association, with whom I always see eye-to-eye on the issues that matter most! And finally, the many public health officials from across this province.

This is one heck of a team we have!

As with many changes, a big part of the challenge is changing the way people think.

Right now, we live in society where popular culture still glamourizes smoking. It's still seen as rebellious, sexy, exotic. That's tough to change - but we have to.

Our challenge is to change the way people think about tobacco use. We have to 'denormalize' it. We also have to change the way people view tobacco. It's a hazardous product; we have to get that message out there.

These kinds of changes aren't easy to bring about. But it can be done.

A generation ago, when we set out to raise awareness of environmental concerns and to promote recycling, we started with kids. And kids, in turn, helped to bring their parents on side. Today, most people instinctively toss a newspaper into their Blue Box, not the garbage can.

And an increased sensitivity to environmental concerns has influenced everything from fast-food packaging to the kind of paint we choose for our walls.

I'm an idealist, but I truly believe that people can change. And I believe that our society can change. And this is a change I want to help bring about.

In many ways, the coming anti-tobacco effort will be one of this government's central challenges. It's certainly one of the issues which will define my term as Health Minister.

I look forward to being judged on how I perform on this file.

My friends, the tobacco industry says they sell a legal product. But it's a product which kills people when used exactly as the manufacturer intends it to be used.

It's a product that kills half of its long term users.

I'm not exactly sure how we've ended up where we are today, but this I know : if there were any other product out there which leaves this kind of trail of death and destruction, we would have banished it a long, long time ago.

It's time we did the right thing. And I'm proud to do my part.

Let the battle begin!