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However, Quebec is believed to be the only province that blocks foreign ownership of agricultural land outright, barring explicit permission from the Commission de protection du territoire agricole (Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land). Mr. Rochemond will also be required to live on the land for more than six months a year.

The provisions were introduced under the government of premier René Lévesque, the founder of Ms. Marois’ Parti Québécois.

During the 1976 election campaign, the PQ leader had warned that, due to foreign speculators, Quebec land was “literally being pulled from beneath our feet,” according to a January post on the Quebec politics website Vigile.net.

But the law may not have been entirely nationalistic: Less than 2% of Quebec is suitable for farming, compared to 12% next door in Ontario.

Furthermore, fears of dwindling farmland were high in the 1970s, particularly after megaprojects like Montreal’s Mirabel airport, an embarrassingly underused facility that was built on expropriated farmland rivaling the size of Montreal itself.

Located on Ile Bizard, a residential enclave just west of the Island of Montreal, La Closerie has been on the market since 2009, after Ms. Marois’ four children flew the nest.

“The children have moved out, so they made the decision as a family to live in [Ms. Marois’ Charlevoix] riding,” Pascal Monette, the PQ’s communications director, told the Montreal Gazette at the time.