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Scrap 24 Sussex Drive. Canada Can Do Better

Crowdfunding repairs to the prime minister’s official home is a terrible idea. Time to start from scratch

On the banks of the Ottawa River stands an empty shell of a building. 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister, has been gutted to the studs. No government wants to be remembered as one that wasted taxpayer money. The result has been decades of deferred maintenance, which explains the property’s decrepit state.

The federal government has announced a crowdfunded competition to rebuild 24 Sussex Drive

The house was originally expropriated by the government and has weak heritage status

The prime minister needs an entirely new official residence that looks and feels Canadian while meeting current and future needs

Mark Carney is obviously aware of the bad optics of fixing up the prime minister’s home while Canada’s in the midst of a prolonged housing affordability crisis. It’s likely why he has announced both a fundraising campaign and competition to redesign and rebuild 24 Sussex. The Rideau Hall Foundation will oversee the fundraising effort, with a goal of raising $50 million. Corporate donations will be prohibited; only Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and philanthropic organizations can contribute. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada will establish the competition’s framework and convene a jury chaired by acclaimed Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. Assuming no delays, the winning Canadian firm will be announced on Canada Day 2027. The whole enterprise feels like an HGTV show scripted by the Privy Council Office.

Rehabilitating 24 Sussex is, of course, the smart political play. It offends the fewest people. It preserves our history and heritage, and by not completely starting from scratch, it’s arguably the cost-conscious choice. That said, it’s hard not to call this a bailout, given that citizens are now being asked to crowdfund a structure whose maintenance and renovation costs should be drawn from the public purse. Carney has also cannily and pre-emptively removed himself from the equation, telling CBC News, “You’re not going to see me at 24 Sussex, but I would like to see my successors at 24 Sussex in some way, shape, or form.”

As a preservationist, I would normally advocate for preserving old buildings. But the more I learn about 24 Sussex, the less convinced I am that it merits preservation either on historic or architectural grounds. Only nine of our twenty-four prime ministers ever lived there; it has been used as an executive residence for sixty-four of its 158 years and has sat vacant since Stephen Harper moved out in 2015. While it was built around the time of Confederation, it has no direct connection to the nation’s founding. (And just for good measure, its original designer, builder, and owner—Joseph Merrill Currier—was born, and died, in the United States.)

I’m also totally unconvinced the building and its location is suitable for the executive residence Canada needs today (let alone tomorrow). The perception—rather than the substance—of its heritage value has become an alibi for timidity. We need new national symbols, not uncritical veneration of the past because our leaders have no imagination.

In sum, I think Canada has outgrown 24 Sussex, but our politicians haven’t. It’s time to start over.

Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations has a revealing entry on 24 Sussex. The house received its heritage designation in 1986, and the justification mentions the house’s association with the six prime ministers who lived in it up until that point. That’s the extent of it. No specific historic event is mentioned. The entry then notes the house is a “nationally known landmark” and that it merits recognition as a heritage site “because of the impact of the house and its grounds on the........

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