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Study objective: To examine the Canadian origins of the Lalonde Report and its impact on British and American health promotion activities. Design: A brief history of the development of key Canadian documents and their use by politicians and public health activists in the United Kingdom and United States. Setting: This paper focuses on the impact of the Canadian model on Canada, the United Kingdom and United States. Main results: This paper argues that internal political and economic forces are as important as international trends in determining healthcare policy initiatives. Conclusions: In the 1970s all the English-speaking developed nations were facing deficits as curative costs rose. Adopting health promotion policies permitted them to shift responsibility back to local governments and individuals while limiting their expenditures. Health and community activists, however, used this concept to broaden their focus to include the social, economic and political determinants of health and thus reinvented public health discourse and practice for the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Youth consumption of cigarillos (ie, little cigars) has increased markedly in recent years. In July 2010, the Canadian government banned the sale of flavoured cigarillos and required unflavoured cigarillos to be sold in packs of at least 20 units. This paper assesses changes in young persons' use of cigarillos and regular cigars, which are potential substitutes, following the policy. Methods To investigate of the change in cigar smoking following the policy, we constructed a segmented regression model that allowed the policy to change the height and the slope of the trend in the outcome variables. The model was estimated using data from the 2007-2011 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Surveys. Results We obtained visual and regression-based evidence that use of cigarillos among youth declined following the policy. We also found a small, gradual increase in their use of regular cigars, possibly due to their compensatory switching from cigarillos to regular cigars. Overall, there was a net reduction in cigar use among youth after the intervention. Interpretation The policy achieved its goal of reducing youth's consumption of cigarillos, but may have an unintended consequence of increasing their use of regular cigars. Policymakers should address the possibility that youth switch to regular cigars in response to restricted access to cigarillos. Possible ways of discouraging this substituting behaviour include extending the ban to cover all flavoured cigars and mandating a minimum pack size for all cigars, or raising taxes on flavoured cigars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's Supreme Court decided in February 2015 that the criminalisation of assisted dying in the country violates the country's citizens and residents constitutional rights. This paper reviews policy recommendations produced by a special expert advisory panel appointed by Canada's provinces and territories, where the responsibility for the provision of health care lies. It also reviews a similar document produced by a special federal parliamentary committee. Based on the review of these two milestone documents it is argued that a Canadian consensus seems to emerge that foreshadows a permissive regulatory regime in that country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]