On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a plan for the refurbishment of 24 Sussex Drive , overseen by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and paid for through a national fundraising campaign.
It’s a necessary project. A report in 2023 noted that attempts to control a significant rodent infestation at the residence left so many carcasses within the walls and basement that serious questions were raised about the home’s air quality.
“There is an important rodent infestation, which can’t be fully addressed until the building envelope issues are resolved,” the said, adding: “There is a serious risk associated to the electrical systems, which is why we consider the building a fire hazard.”
Mould, water infiltration, corroding plumbing and asbestos are also listed as urgent concerns.
Here are more five things to know about Canada’s former and future official residence for the prime minister.
Its original name was Gorffwysfa
The house at 24 Sussex Drive (originally Sussex Street) was commissioned in 1866 by Joseph Merrill Currier, a Member of Parliament, as a wedding gift for his fiancee, Hannah Wright. He named it Gorffwysfa, a Welsh word meaning “place of rest.”
Its ownership by the government involved a legal fight
In the 1940s, foreign governments were buying land near 24 Sussex for embassy space, and the government feared this property, with its commanding views and choice location, might be next. So in 1943 it served an eviction notice to the home’s occupant, former MP Gordon Edwards.
But he didn’t want to leave, and spent the last few years of his life fighting the order. The government offered $125,000 compensation for the house. Edwards demanded $251,000. In 1946 a court eventually settled on $140,000 plus $7,319 in legal costs. Nevertheless, Edwards stayed on until he died later that year.
Edwards was also an art collector, and several paintings in his collection that once hung at 24 Sussex can now be seen in the nearby National Gallery of Canada .
Even in the 1940s it was deemed out of date
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King thought 24 Sussex would make an excellent “permanent and non-political residence for Canada’s prime ministers,” but others were not so sure.
At an expropriation hearing for the property, a real estate agent noted that the house, which had been previously remodelled the early 1900s, didn’t fit the needs of 1943.
Six years later, the Ottawa Citizen wrote that the building was “already old and out of date” and had no particular distinction. The newspaper also said it was draughty, poorly heated and inconvenient.
Security has been less that tight
In the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 1995, a man named André Dallaire sneaked onto the property, broke a window and got inside while Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife, Aline, were home.
He wandered around the premises for about a half an hour before being spotted by Aline, who ran to the bedroom to tell her husband what was happening. One detail that stood out from the incident was that of the prime minister holding an Inuit soapstone sculpture of a loon in defence against the intruder, who was eventually arrested.
Dallaire claimed he heard voices telling him to break in, and that he believed he was a secret agent avenging the loss in the recent referendum on Quebec separation. He was found guilty of attempted murder , but not criminally responsible.
Lack of security was just one reason why Justin Trudeau decided not to live at 24 Sussex, which has remained empty since 2015.
It’s just one of six official residences in Canada
In addition to 24 Sussex Drive, Canada also maintains Rideau Hall (down the street at 1 Sussex Drive) as the official residence and workplace of the governor general; 7 Rideau Gate as a “home away from home” for visiting dignitaries; Stornoway, the official residence of Canada’s leader of the Opposition; a residence at Harrington Lake serving as the country residence of the prime minister; and “The Farm” in the Gatineau Hills, the official residence of the speaker of the House of Commons.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
