Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday. Mr. Carney said he makes 'no judgment' about principal secretary Tom Pitfield's connection to the tobacco industry.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he doesn’t judge his principal secretary, Tom Pitfield, for his connection to Big Tobacco and said the question of whether he should recuse himself from health-policy matters is of no importance.
As The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week, Mr. Pitfield is one of the largest shareholders in a marketing and analytics company, Data Sciences, that has for years been working on behalf of Philip Morris International in Canada and globally.
Mr. Pitfield and Data Sciences until now have been best known as the team that oversees the Liberal Party’s digital operations during election campaigns. In this capacity, Mr. Pitfield has held the title of chief digital strategist under both Justin Trudeau and now Mr. Carney.
Philip Morris is the world’s largest tobacco company and earned more than US$37-billion in revenue last year, nearly two-thirds from cigarettes. In response to declining smoking rates, large tobacco companies have been pivoting to promote vapes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco in response to declining smoking rates.
Smokers looking to quit should only use vapes as last resort, new guidelines say
Mr. Pitfield’s business connection does not fit with current and past Liberal governments’ record of pushing stricter measures to discourage Canadians from smoking and using tobacco products because of the health risks.
Asked about the revelation Friday at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont., the Prime Minister shrugged it off.
“There’s certain activities which are legal in this country − which I don’t necessarily follow or approve of,” he said. “We have a tobacco industry in the country. We have people who smoke in this country,” Mr. Carney noted.
“It is legal to buy cigarettes in this country. I make no judgment about that.”
Asked whether Mr. Pitfield would recuse himself from any health-policy discussions or debates inside government, Mr. Carney said this was not an important concern. “I don’t know,” he answered, before calling the matter “a non-issue.”
From the archives: Big Tobacco is getting a whole new generation hooked on nicotine
Ottawa is trying to reduce tobacco use by regulating packaging and funding stop-smoking measures and youth prevention programs, as well as enacting regulations against vaping products. The federal government prohibits sales of vaping products to minors and limits nicotine concentration. It is also under pressure to ban flavoured vaping products to counter high youth vaping rates.
Mr. Pitfield’s spouse, Anna Gainey, is the government’s Secretary of State for Children and Youth. She was Liberal Party president from 2014 to 2018.
Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, has said Mr. Pitfield’s senior position in the PMO raises serious ethical questions, particularly since tobacco kills 46,000 Canadians annually.
A federal government corporate registry says Mr. Pitfield “owns, controls or directs 25 per cent or more of shares” of Data Sciences and “up to 50 per cent of the shares.” The registry information was last updated on June 30.
Interim NDP Leader Don Davies has registered concern about the work done by Mr. Pitfield’s company.
“It’s disturbing and concerning someone so close to the Prime Minister is so closely associated with Big Tobacco, a major purveyor of carcinogens, which is inconsistent with official government policy,” Mr. Davies said.