A new survey suggests the majority of Canadians are in favour of a new U.K. law that is increasing the legal purchasing age for cigarettes by one year every year.
The goal of the law is to eventually make it illegal for anyone who isn’t already a smoker to purchase cigarettes. This will be the case for anyone born in or after 2009.
Although the equivalent doesn’t exist in Canada, the idea seems to sit well with residents. Of 1,002 Canadian adults surveyed by Research Co last month, 63 per cent said they thought Canada should consider similar legislation.
That percentage was highest among respondents who voted Liberal in the last federal election (73 per cent), followed by Conservative voters (67 per cent) and NDP ones (63 per cent).
In Canada, about 21 per cent of people smoked tobacco in any form over the last year. That proportion was lowest in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (16 per cent), Atlantic Canada (17 per cent) and Ontario and B.C. (18 per cent). It was highest in Quebec (26 per cent) and Alberta (29 per cent).
A smaller number of Canadians smoked marijuana (19 per cent), vaped (16 per cent), used marijuana edibles (15 per cent) or chewed tobacco (four per cent).
Although Canada hasn’t implemented a law like the U.K., it did take it’s own steps to try and tackle smoking habits recently. Earlier this year, it became the first country to mandate warning labels on individual cigarettes sold in the country. About 68 per cent of Canadians surveyed agreed with that decision, while 20 per cent disagreed and 11 per cent were undecided, according to Research Co.
The Research Co survey ran from April 28 to April 30 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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