The legal and political evolution of federal tobacco control legislation

This thesis analyzes the legal and political factors influencing the evolution of federal tobacco control legislation throughout the last century. This thesis takes a case study approach in order to demonstrate the inherent difficulties in enacting national tobacco control legislation to regulate tobacco products in two areas: (1) advertising and sponsorship; and (2) packaging and labelling. This thesis argues that the Charter poses the greatest legal barrier to positive legislative outcomes from the perspective of antismoking advocates. It is argued that notwithstanding the Charter constraints, the greatest barriers to enacting tobacco control legislation are political. For most of this century, public policy in this area has been shaped and controlled by pro-tobacco interest groups, resulting in too few tobacco control laws which enhance the greater public good. This thesis demonstrates that the evolution of federal tobacco control from symbolic legislation (early 1900s) to industry-self regulation (1960s to the 1980s) to government regulation (late 1980s to the present) has been the predictable outcome under a public choice analysis of the political process.