The Outdoor Advertising Association of Canada has decided it’s time to stop being Mr. Nice Guy.

Instead, it’s threatening the federal government with a potential lawsuit if it doesn’t make changes to the controversial Tobacco Act.

‘We had to fire a warning shot across the bow of a boat and I think we’ve done that,’ says oaac chair John Baird.

Earlier this month, the 40-member association sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s office promising to sue if Bill C-71 is ever found unconstitutional.

The letter advises the government that the oaac will seek damages for lost revenues and any associated damages should the Bill, if enacted, be overturned by the courts.

(Just two years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada scrapped the 1988 Tobacco Products Control Act because it was found unconstitutional. The oaac claims the new Bill also violates the right to freedom of expression)

‘It will get their attention,’ says Baird, who estimates that lost revenue to outdoor advertising suppliers would exceed $10 million a year.

Besides citing the oft-heard argument that the proposed legislation breaches the right to freedom of expression, the letter complains that the outdoor industry is being discriminated against – and that’s the real issue for the association, says Baird.

He says that exceptions to the prohibition of tobacco advertising include publications with 85% adult readership. Baird argues that the majority of the oaac’s audience is vehicular and so falls under that category.

As a measure of good faith, and to further ensure an adult audience, Baird says the industry would be willing to decline tobacco advertising at street level. ‘We (already) keep it away from schools,’ he says.

Finally, the oaac points out in its letter that the government doesn’t appear to consider the impact of electronic media such as the Internet, nor does it regulate advertising carried in foreign periodicals.

Baird says the association expects to argue its case before the Senate by the end of the week.