It might be helpful to compare the value of a buck in 1972 and in 2017. In Carter Commission parlance, a "buck is a buck" so long term capital gains (over up to 45 years) are treated accordingly. We had a distinguished logician as Prime Minister, whose mantra mirrored this motto, as in "a proof is a proof". Equally fatuous, and in the former case, disastrous for those holding long term capital gains. This is why one federal candidate is proposing to eliminate capital gains tax, which is in reality, owing to inflation, a wealth tax. That same illustrious prime minister, who was also the very first French Canadian finance minister, decided that it wasn't right to allow losses against gains, so various classes of gains were set up and only losses in those classes could be counted against the gains in those very same classes. The current government has no intention of making the tax act more fair or rational. As for the learned tax professor, he is a learned socialist with a grudge.