Big Oil, Alberta fight ad ruling

Of course, the petroleum industry isn't keen on reducing its output and putting itself out of business, Gillian Steward writes, just as the tobacco industry wasn't keen on letting people know that cigarette smokers were likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease.

- GILLIAN STEWARD

If you are old enough to remember when smoking was allowed in theatres, airplanes and restaurants you might also remember the tobacco industry's advertising campaigns.

Some ads claimed smoking could actually be good for a person. There were even ads claiming pregnant women "craved" cigarettes; that doctors preferred Camels. No mention of lung cancer or heart disease, even though the industry knew smoking could kill you.

When medical science publicly fought back with evidence that proved the link between smoking and lung cancer, the tobacco industry claimed it wasn't "sound" science. Only their science was "sound" science.

It's this kind of dangerous propaganda that the federal government is no doubt hoping to curtail with amendments to the Competition Act, which will establish policing of claims made by businesses that stretch the truth or downright lie about their "green" credentials.

Not surprisingly, the Alberta government is outraged because it sees the legislation as an attack on the oil and gas industry.

But there is good reason to doubt some of the industry's claims.