Actually, that subject question would have been more appropriate a number of decades ago. I'm not sure how many of us know that at one time, you had to pay for a licence to own a radio in your own home in Canada. I found that out when one of them turned up in an old Victrola I inherited from my grandmother many years ago. (Why it was in an old record player which had no radio is anyone's guess.) 

In those days, of course (1937) a radio was a huge piece of furniture that could weigh up to 200 lbs. And wasn't it nice of the government to allow you to also own a radio in your "automobile" for the same $2 price tag. (Worth around $35 or so in modern times.) So it wasn't exactly cheap. This is the same scheme they use in Britain to fund the BBC.

I'm not sure who "Lena Eller," the woman whose name is on the licence below was, but it appears she was paid in full for the year. I wonder when this levy started and more importantly, when and how it ended. (Have you ever heard of a tax being taken off something?)

But maybe I shouldn't post this. I don't want to give Nickel-And-Dime Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau any more cockamamie ideas about how to pull more money out of our wallets!