In the 1980s this State was to the fore in the international campaign against smoking. Advertising restrictions were among the most stringent in Europe.
But proposals now before the Canadian government will deliver the toughest anti-smoking message on a cigarette pack yet.
The Canadians hope to pass legislation for the campaign this summer. It results from of an initiative which began in 1998 when a panel of 26 health experts representing 130 agencies persuaded the government that far more stringent warnings were needed.
The new warnings are blunt: "Cigarettes can cause a slow and painful death" is one. Others will include details of the risks to the health of children from passive smoking and an image of a pregnant woman with warnings about potential harm to her baby.
Other graphic images include cancerous lungs and a dissected brain showing a haemorrhage caused by smoking. The health warnings will occupy 60 per cent of the front and back of cigarette packs.
A proposed EU directive to update tobacco regulations seems tame by comparison.
One of its principal recommendations is an increase in health warnings on cigarette packs from 6 per cent to not less than 25 per cent of the pack surface. These will appear on the front and back of the pack in black print on a white background, surrounded by a black border.
Other measures include a prohibition on terms such as "low tar", "light", "mild" or "ultra", although individual memberstates can authorise their use.
The protection of minors is addressed by a bar on sales to people under 16.
One of Canada's leading antismoking campaigners, Mr Garfield Mahood, of the Canadian Non-Smokers' Rights Association, says governments only deliver reforms "when pummelled into submission by health agencies, professionals and the media".
The EU directive - still making its way through European red tape - may already be outdated.