Times Colonist
July 5, 1999 - Victoria, B.C.
Irate Smoker takes her business elsewhere
As a non-participating Victorian for the last several months, Victoria is not home but a place where I have to live. I have parked in the parking lot of the bingo and observed the bingo patrons standing outside in the wind, rain and cold to smoke, and overheard passer-bys nodding, snickering and commenting "aren't they pathetic." Well, I am not an object of someone's ridicule so I put aside my $1,500 monthly bingo monies and took an extended flight to Reno. It was great! I was allowed to smoke inside and not be treated like a fifth-class citizen. I was able to contact between 275-300 people focusing on smokers and told them they would not like it where I had to live and told them why, including the hospice and seniors' home situation. I was amazed at the number of Californians who were in Reno for the same reason as I was (because of the smoking ban there), and the number of people who had come to Victoria in the past but will no longer do so. One 50ish man from California, a non-smoker, approved of the no-smoking bylaw, but when told of hospice situation, etc., said "It sounds like you have a government out of control." In California some restaurants have smoking rooms, the bars I don't know, bingos offer seating for smokers, and reserve land is not affected by non-smoking. I will go back -- soon. Joyce ConnickVictoria