Montreal politicians and health authorities want to extinguish Quebec’s reputation as the ashtray of Canada.

Smoking-related illness kills 10,000 Quebecers each year and yet 20,000 new smokers start lighting up annually, a cycle that leads to tragedy and well as billions of dollars in added public health costs.

About 21 percent of Montrealers smoke, compared to 12 percent of Vancouver residents, according to numbers cited at a press conference in Montreal Monday, which urged new measures to discourage the cancer-causing habit.

“We propose that city council support the demands of these 50 health groups calling for measure to reduce smoking by 10 percent in 10 years,” said City councillor Marvin Rotrand, who said that the initiate already has the support of three parties in the National Assembly.

The coalition is calling for provincial legislation, including a ban on smoking in cars -already law in nine other provinces - and taking a page from Ontario which bans smoking in a wide variety of public places.

Taking the glamour out of packaging is an important step in the plan.

"We have seen packaging become the last billboard for the tobacco industry," said Genevieve Bois of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. "This is the how you make a product attractive, you sell values associated with it, you sell the brand imagery: elegance, adventure, fashion. A pack of cigarettes now looks like mascara or lipstick box."

Bois is urging Quebec to follow the U.K. and Australia in making plain boxes mandatory. "That shows that it’s a deadly and additive product rather than a game for children,” she said.

Another city councillor said that a serious push must be made fast.

"The tobacco industry is using all of its creativity to push these products and it's workig. We have 20,000 new people picking up smoking every year in Quebec" said city councillor Justine Mcintyre.

"In order to meet those measures to be put into place by the marketing machine, the Quebec government has to put in place a vision that’s the same level, that’s why we’re asking for the 10 percent reduction over 10 years. It’s a concrete, attainable measure but the government needs to act quickly," she said.