stealth confiscation

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Back when Canada's premiers and then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau debated what to put into what later became the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, property rights were one possibility and on the table.

Trudeau had pushed for property rights as justice minister in 1968, again as prime minister in 1969, and in 1980 during constitutional talks. But property rights never made it into the final 1982 Charter because Trudeau and Bill Bennett, then-Premier of British Columbia, were the lone advocates.


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Many people often look to Europe as an example of what Aristotle called the good life—think of their pleasant cities and obvious regard for art and history. But here’s something else Canadians can learn from Europe: how many governments there are much better at balancing the rights of private property owners with regulations that restrict property and lessen its value.