Stephen Harper Says Smoke 'em if You Got 'em. Cough. Cough.

The tobacco companies are finally cashing in.

The Fraser, the bogus think-tank that brought Stephen Harper to power (and Jason Kenney and Rob Anders. Thank you) has been trying to convince us that smoking is not harmful to our health.

Stephen Harper agrees (with the thousands of dollars that the tobacco companies have been donating to the Fraser) and is now removing the warning on cigarette packages.

The Harper government’s recent decision to drop plans for a new round of cigarette-package warnings raised some eyebrows in the public-health world, to say the least. Canada had been a world-leader in requiring graphic alerts on tobacco labels, an idea since mimicked by numerous other countries. But there is wide agreement that the warnings need to be refreshed to continue acting as a deterrent, and Canada has not done so in a decade. Now the country’s premiere medical journal has weighed in, calling the decision to drop plans to upgrade the messages misguided and dangerous.

Welcome to Harperland. The country formerly known as Canada.