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• CHR told to butt out of debate  

Misplaced zealotry on the part of the Calgary Health Region backfired on efforts to cement an earlier date for an all-out smoking ban, say some aldermen.

The aldermen and Mayor Dave Bronconnier have turned their guns on the CHR, saying they should butt out of the city's smoking debate and lobby the province to toughen anti-tobacco measures instead.

Ald. Barry Erskine said the CHR's push to protect adults from second-hand smoke, not just children as initially envisioned, galvanized resistance to that campaign.

"They kept moving the goalposts and it did them in," said Erskine, who called CHR officials "Machiavellian" in their attempts to widen the scope of the regulations.

"The ends justified the means and there was no ethical commitment to the original intentions."

Ald. Ric McIver said the CHR used provincial money from a government unwilling to legislate against smoking "to beat up on the city to further what should be a provincial initiative."

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