The Most Expensive Cigarettes in Canadian History

The most expensive cigarettes you can buy at a corner store are the result of decades of aggressive “sin taxes”. Unlike the United States, where federal taxes are relatively flat, Canada layers a federal excise duty on top of increasingly heavy provincial tobacco taxes.

• 🥇 British Columbia ($178/carton): As of 2022, B.C. consistently ranks as the most expensive province for legal smokes. The government has aggressively raised tobacco taxes, with a tax of approximately $59 per carton by 2019, driving retail prices above $178 [citation:3][citation:4].
• 🥈 Atlantic Canada ($162/carton): Following substantial hikes in 2017 to deter smoking, provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick saw prices soar, inadvertently fueling the contraband market [citation:3][citation:9].
• 🥉 Manitoba & Saskatchewan: Historically, Manitoba once beat out all other provinces, with prices reaching nearly $140 per carton as early as 2018 [citation:10].

Long before plain packaging laws, cigarette packs were works of art. For collectors of tobaccoiana, vintage Canadian packs represent a bygone era of graphic design. Unlike consumable cigarettes, these collectibles are valued for their scarcity and condition.

• 📦 Craven ‘A’ full boxes: Sealed vintage boxes (20-25 cigarettes) from the mid-20th century often sell for significant premiums purely for display.
• 🏅 1915 Imperial Tobacco packs: Empty packs from 1915 featuring brands like “Millbank” and “Guinea Gold” are highly sought-after antiques.
• 💰 Auction Reality: In a 2025 auction, a lot of six 20-count packages of “Canadian Classic Rich” sold for $60 — that works out to roughly $12 per pack for common modern cigarettes due to auction fever [citation:2].

Perhaps the most famous expensive tobacco in Canadian history wasn’t bought by a consumer, but by the government. In 1902, during a debate in the House of Commons, MP Thomas Simpson Sproule railed against the lavish spending of the Minister of Public Works [citation:1].

• 💰 The Receipt: The government had purchased “Representative cigars” for $180 per thousand and “Flora Espana” cigars for $45 per thousand for remote laborers [citation:1].
• 📉 Scandalous value: Adjusting for inflation, these cigars would be astronomically expensive by today’s standards. The opposition considered this an “extravagant luxury” and a misuse of public funds [citation:1].
• ⚡ The reaction: MP Sproule sarcastically asked how the “boys going around Ottawa smoking 5-cent cigars” would feel knowing their government was smoking these expensive luxuries on the taxpayer’s dime [citation:1].

Ironically, some of the most expensive legal cigarettes have inadvertently created the demand for the most expensive illegal ones — or conversely, pushed consumers to Native tax-exempt options.

• 📉 The NB Crash: When New Brunswick raised its prices to match the highest in the country (~$123/carton in 2017), legal sales plummeted. Smokers turned to the black market where cartons sold for as little as $45 [citation:9].
• 💰 The Illegal Premium: Contraband cigarettes, while cheap for the buyer, represent a massive loss of tax revenue for the government—costing hundreds of millions annually. This makes them “expensive” for the public system [citation:9].

Even within the legal market, some brands command a higher price purely based on branding. While Plain Packaging laws have removed logos, the underlying manufacturer reputation still influences price tiers.

• 🥇 Belmont & Du Maurier: Often positioned at the top tier, a carton can easily run $150-$165 depending on the province [citation:6].
• 🥈 Players & John Player Special: These legacy brands sit in the mid-to-high tier, generally $10-$20 less per carton than the ultra-premiums.
• 💡 The Native Alternative: In stark contrast to the $160 carton of premium commercial smokes, Native brands like Canadian Full or Playfare offer a functionally similar product for a fraction of the price ($29-$50).