DELHI — Intense bitterness mixed with the cigarette smoke in the downstairs bar at the Canadian Tobacco District Hungarian House as patrons contemplated Ontario’s sweeping tobacco ban earlier this week.

“It’s communism. Our fathers fought against communism and now the government here is trying to take away our freedom. I say, get rid of the government,” said Jerry, who declined to give his last name.

The town that describes itself as “the heart of tobacco country” has seen the best of times when the golden leaf was Ontario’s biggest cash crop, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars a year into the area economy.

But now area tobacco farms are shutting down in the face of a collapse in demand for their product and growers are left pleading for government assistance to help them walk away for good from the once-lucrative business.

Several area manufacturers that depended on the farm economy have already boarded up their operations.

The Ontario government’s ban on smoking in bars and workplaces — a law that took effect at midnight — is the final insult, residents insist, especially given the billions in tobacco taxes the province has collected.

“They try to make you feel guilty because you smoke, but it is not my fault,” said Delhi resident Jean Brown, whose husband usually works on tobacco farms but has no job this season.

Brown said she won’t be drinking in bars once the ban comes into effect.

“It is not fair, it is just not fair.”

Adam Macsai Jr., president of the Hungarian House, said the anti-tobacco law has put the cultural institution that was built by local tobacco farmers in jeopardy.

“Everything is going all to hell. Tobacco built this area and now it is moving out. Our economy is going down the toilet,” he said.

Macsai said 99 per cent of the people who come to the private club are smokers.

“If they cannot smoke, they will not attend. If we lose that volume of customers, we are going to be forced to close. The government is destroying us,” he said.

“In a private club such as ours, people should have the freedom to elect if it is smoking or not.”

Puffing on a cigarette himself, Macsai agrees that smoking is a health hazard. But so is pollution from cars and junk food, he said.

Across town at the German Hall, club vice-president Joe Csoff argues the province should pay compensation when it passes a law that hurts businesses.

“They say they are doing it for health reasons, but it is not about health, it is about votes,” he said.

“If they are going to stop smoking, why doesn’t the government stop drinking and everything else that is toxic. Why pick on one?”

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