Tobacco Industry

The tobacco industry in Canada is almost 150 years old. Canada's first tobacco company was founded in 1858 in Montreal as Macdonald Tobacco. The company still survives today as JTI-Macdonald Corporation.

Today, three companies dominate the Canadian tobacco industry. In order of market share, they are: Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc., and JTI-Macdonald Corporation. Together, they form the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council (CTHC), the industry's main lobby association. The CTMC was founded in 1963, shortly after Canada began its first national non-smoking campaign.

In 1999-2000, Canada's three major tobacco companies earned about $3 billion in net sales.

For more information on the tobacco industry in Canada, consult the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control (CCTC)  and look under Industry Watch.

Industry documents

The NCTH and Health Canada are the Canadian hosts for Guildford Depository materials relating to the Canadian tobacco industry. The Guildford Depository was established in 1998 by order of an American court as a result of litigation initiated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and contains more than six million pages of British-American Tobacco Company (BAT) internal documents. Canada's Imperial Tobacco Limited is associated with BAT. These documents were never intended for the general public and offer insight into the workings of tobacco marketers, researchers, and executives.