In the report titled A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians(Lalonde 1974), the Government of Canada publicly acknowledged that medicine and the traditional healthcare system play only a small role in determining health status. Instead, health is portrayed as being determined by the interplay of factors, including human biology, the environment and lifestyle. The lifestyle component of the report received the most attention, and efforts were directed to promote the adoption of healthier lifestyles. Canadian programming during the 1970s had a positive impact in terms of smoking (Ferrence 1989), the promotion of healthy eating habits (Labonte and Penfold 1981) and the awareness of the importance of physical activity (Cunningham 1992). However, the approach was criticized for assigning blame to individuals for their own health problems. If ill health was "caused" by poor judgement and decision-making around smoking, nutrition and physical activity patterns, then it is easy to see how individuals could feel judged by campaigns and programming that focused entirely on individual responsibility for behaviour change. There is now a growing recognition that lifestyle behaviours, such as physical activity and smoking, are influenced not only by individual choice, but also by a variety of social, economic and cultural factors inherent in the environments where people live, learn, work and play.