Here in Nova Scotia, smoking is banned in all public places, all work places, and usually also within five metres of public entrances, is not permitted anywhere on hospital property. This has been so for several years, and people have just adapted. Smokers joke that they are the only people who regularly get any fresh air in winter, as they must go outdoors for their puff.

I am one of those people in a constant struggle with nicotine addiction (quitting's easy - I've done it a few dozen times), and I'm happy with the bans. Helps me avoid temptation when I'm not smoking, limits me when I'm succumbing.

I do, however, find some of the more adamant anti-smokers rude and even unkind.

Example 1: When smoking was still permissible outside the hospital a couple years ago, and I was waiting for my mother, I helped an 86 year old man find his way out to a reasonably sheltered spot so he could have his smoke out of the cold wind. An extremely officious young administrative person came racing out and lambasted him for smoking too close to her window, which was open a tiny crack and a good three metres away.

Example 2: At a craft fair, where the mingled scented soaps, candles, sachets, people's perfumes, colognes, are enough to knock a person flat, a woman standing at my booth noticed, walking by, another elderly man holding an unlit cigar and took it upon herself to loudly complain that she would soon have an asthma attack from the smell of that disgustiing cigar, and someone should throw him out.