Cigarette smoking is one of the most important risk factors for burden of disease. Our objective was to estimate the smoking-attributable deaths and the years of life lost for Canada 2002. For Canada in 2002, 37,209 of all deaths aged 0 to 80+ years were attributable to smoking, 23,766 in men and 13,443 in women. This constituted 16.6% of all deaths in Canada, 21% for men and 12.2% for women. Main causes of smoking-attributable death were malignant neoplasms (17,427), cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (10,275) and respiratory diseases (8,282). Lung cancer (13,401) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (7,533) were the single largest disease contributors to deaths caused by smoking. 515,608 years of life were lost prematurely in Canada in that year, 316,417 years in men and 199,191 years in women. Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to mortality in Canada and its impact on Canadian society continues to be an unacceptable burden.