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Hazy smoke blanketed Vancouver as befit the presence of the Billy Graham of Big Tobacco — a veritable, if middle-aged, incarnation of Keanu Reeves as The Devil’s Advocate.

Peter Luongo, the managing director of Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, televangelist of the nation’s nicotine pedlars, frowned as nature’s fire-and-brimstone obscured Robson Square.

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I imagine he thought, there’s no profit in that smoke. Still, he’s up for his new role now that tobacco is back in the news.

“We do have a vision that we think can help people,” Luongo said sincerely. “It’s really about switching people from cigarettes to smoke-free alternatives. It’s a business opportunity, but it’s also a real opportunity for public health.”

Luongo casts himself as a defender of free-speech rights in an unsuccessful battle against federal bill S-5 — Toward a Regulatory Framework for E-Cigarettes — the newly adopted amendments to the Tobacco Act that regulate the manufacture, sale, labelling and promotion of vaping products.