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The article focuses on the history of land-value taxation in Canada. "Land" is a concept that is as much misunderstood in Canada as anywhere else in the industrialized world. Even economists often fail to point out that land includes all natural resources and that its return is called rent, not profit. The property tax in Canada is usually levied by the municipality, but in more remote areas, by the provinces, or in the territories by the national government. As if to reflect the general confusion of land with capital the property tax falls on improvements as well as land. By the early twentieth century, land-value taxation was wide-spread in the four western provinces, which had been settled largely by homesteaders. The period between 1901 and 1906 was marked by a 260 percent increase in population in these provinces, with still greater augmentation of production, and massive spending on public buildings and infrastructure. Land values appreciated tremendously, especially in the urban areas. All of this might have translated into lasting prosperity if the land had been taxed sufficiently to discourage speculation, but it was not. It cannot be overemphasized that land values assessed are often not the current ones, but up to as much as forty years out of date.