NDP MP wants to treat oil like tobacco. Alberta NDP doesn't smoke the same stuff

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus's message this week that the oil and gas sector needs to have its «big tobacco moment» and no longer be advertised positively will play well among the Canadians who largely view fossil fuels as climate-ravaging toxins that must be shunned as quickly as possible.

The federal NDP member's message and new private member's bill will play less well among the Canadians whose livelihoods rely on the production and sale of the fossil fuels that nearly all other Canadians wind up using on a daily basis to move around and stay warm.

And surely almost anyone in this country will recognize where most of those oil-producing Canadians reside — that variously flat and bumpy region whose own provincial NDP wing just so happens to be embarking on a debate over how to redefine themselves.

While it's unclear exactly how the Alberta NDP will want to project themselves to Albertans in their leadership race, it's probably a safe bet that they won't want to outlaw promoting the oil and gas industry as a force for economic good, as Angus, a northern Ontario MP, has proposed.

A private member's bill typically has little chance of getting adopted, and news of its introduction may have been lost on the broader national public, earning more attention from the environmentalists keen to crack down on Big Oil at one end, and those who feel threatened by the popularization and implementation of such an idea at the other.

Angus modelled his bill closely on the 1997 Tobacco Act that placed severe limits on cigarette advertising. In promoting his anti-promotion legislation, he took direct aim at oil groups like Pathways Alliance, the coalition of oilsands companies that heavily advertise their bid to reach net-zero by 2050.

«They'r