Throughout North America, governments--federal, provincial, state, and local--have declared tobacco to be public health enemy Number 1. What should public policy be toward tobacco, a legal product that remains a habitual pleasure for one Canadian in four? To answer this question, The Fraser Institute invited leading scientists, public-policy experts, and journalists to meet in Ottawa on May 13, 1999 to debate the costs and benefits of tobacco regulation.

This seminal event produced several important critiques of past and present government policies towards both the companies that produce tobacco products and the consumers of these products. This publication is the first of a number of Public Policy Sources highlighting specific aspects of the debate over tobacco regulation.

Canada should eliminate its capital gains tax to spur economic growth, says a new book Unlocking Canadian Capital: The Case for Capital Gains Tax Reform in Canada written by economist and Institute Senior Fellow Herbert Grubel.

Every year at this time, we ask ourselves: Why should we measure the performance of schools? In previous editions of the Fraser Institute's Report Card on British Columbia's Secondary Schools (Report Card), the question has prompted a two part answer. First, we measure performance so that the schools will have an objective benchmark against which to improve. Second, and equally as important, the Fraser Institute's Report Card on British Columbia's Secondary Schools measures and reports the performance of schools so that parents and students can make a more informed choice of an education provider.