The Prime Minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa has been allowed to fall into disrepair by successive Prime Ministers who fear doing something to save it would be used against them by their opponents.Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press
If this space has its great white whale – the thing it pursues compulsively with scant chance of success – it is probably the hope that Canada will one day provide its prime minister with an official residence that reflects the best our successful liberal democracy has to offer.
As it is, 24 Sussex Dr. is a monument only to our failures. A 19th-century lumber baron’s mansion that became the PM’s publicly owned official residence in 1950, today it is a fire trap and health hazard that sits empty in anticipation of the urgent abatement work required to bring its wiring, insulation and mechanical systems up to 21st-century standards.
The United States has the White House, France has the Élysée Palace and Britain has 10 Downing St. – all storied residences that are synonymous with modern democracy. This country has a rotting fixer-upper.
What does the decrepitude of 24 Sussex say about Canada? First and foremost, it says this country is trapped in the worst kind of populism, one in which politicians theatrically spurn even the most basic trappings of power.
Successive prime ministers, most notably Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, have allowed 24 Sussex to disintegrate, out of the justified fear that authorizing needed repairs would be spun by their political opponents as an monomaniacal attempt to erect a personal Château de Versailles.
It’s nonsense, of course, and disheartening that politicians as otherwise able as Mr. Harper and Mr. Trudeau have not been able to summon the wit or will to stand up to it. They should have argued that maintaining the public residence assigned to them was an important responsibility, one done in the name of their successors.
The consequence to taxpayers has been the decay of a national landmark that will cost millions of dollars to undo. When Mr. Harper was warned of the need to repair 24 Sussex in 2008, the National Capital Commission said that work could cost $9.7-million. Today, the figure is $36.6-million.
The public has also had to spend more than $1-million to house Mr. Trudeau and his family in a livable residence on the grounds of Rideau Hall since 2015. And let’s not forget that another $1.5-million has been spent since 2010 to maintain Stornoway, the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition and current home of Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.
So, the money taps have not been turned off. All that has happened is that Canada no longer has an official residence for its prime minister that can serve as both a place to live and a site to host visiting dignitaries, foreign leaders and Canadians themselves.
And at the moment, there is no indication it will have one any time soon. The Globe and Mail reported this week that the Trudeau government says it is continuing to develop a plan for 24 Sussex Dr., whatever that might mean.
Canada needs and deserves a proper prime minister’s residence. We are a G7 country in a globalized world, one in which the past year has demonstrated the critical importance of the alliances between like-minded democracies. Our prime minister should be able to host visitors in a way that signals that Canada is a mature and confident part of the democratic world.
We do not need something on the grand Gallic scale of the sprawling Élysée Palace. That’s not us at all. The White House is not a good model, either. The prime minister’s residence should not house the Prime Minister’s Office; the PMO should remain on the public grounds of Parliament Hill. Combining them in what would be a more exclusive space would be a bit too presidential for our parliamentary traditions.
But beyond the need for Canada to overcome the silly populist theatre that equates public renovations with baroque extravagance, there lies the truism that what is on the outside mirrors what’s on the inside. Symbols matter.
Canada is one of the safest, most stable and most diverse countries on the planet. It is a place people from other countries seek out in order to enjoy the freedoms and prosperity we take for granted. While it might seem like a small thing, providing the country’s elected leader with a safe and modern residence is a signal to ourselves and to others that Canada is no house of straw.
The political demolition of 24 Sussex Dr. sends the opposite, and worrying, message.