Canada’s Prime Ministerial Housing Crisis - Thinking Canada Volume II, Issue I

In a June 2021 Report, the NCC reviewed the condition of Canada’s six official residences: Rideau Hall, home of the Governor General; 24 Sussex and Harrington Lake, a summer home for the prime minister akin, in some respects, to Camp David; The Farm, home of the Speaker of the House of Commons; Stornoway, the home of the Leader of the Official Opposition; and 7 Rideau Gate, the government’s guest. [...] Michael Wer- nick, Canada’s senior public servant from 2016-2019, recommends that a new residence be built at a more secure location.4 Others have called for complete renovation of 24 Sussex as a residence plus the construction, on the property, of a building that could serve some of the same functions as the White House (e.g., offices for key staff, a place for the Cabinet to meet, and a space in. [...] Reid found that 64% of Ca- nadians believe that federal governments have failed to maintain the prime minister’s residence “because they are afraid of the public backlash.”9 Is it any wonder? In late May, Helena Jaczek, the Minister of Public Services, told a Parliamentary Committee that while the NCC has resumed work at the site, the repairs underway are for purposes of ensuring that 24 Sussex “d. [...] By contrast, since the 1940s (when the White House was run down), the United States has become, first, the “leader of the free world” then, the “world’s only superpower.” Even as China rises, it’s impossible to contemplate anything other than that the White House will remain central to the world’s attention. [...] The country and the world will soldier on even as the country risks forfeit- ing another of the tools of effective diplomacy.