Date of publication: 28 Apr 2022 • 4 hours ago • 5 minutes reading • 172 Comments Official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada at 24 Sussex Drive. It looks beautiful, but it’s really a ruined death trap. Photo by James Park for the National Post
Content of the article
First Reading is a daily newsletter that keeps you informed of the plight of Canadian politicians, all curated by Tristin Hopper of the National Post. To receive an early version that is sent directly to your inbox every Monday through Thursday at 6 p.m. ET (and 9 a.m. on Saturdays), sign up here.
Advertising 2
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
TOP STORY
Amid general agreement that Canada’s official prime ministerial residence may be dilapidated without repair, Ottawa appears to be considering a plan to build a brand new home that better fits the US White House or 10 Downing Street. Of Britain. A 47-page report received by CTV News as part of a request for access to information forces the National Funds Commission to rule out the details of a specially designed “multi-purpose” facility that could host receptions, provide office space for staff and Press and visit world leaders for the night. The Rideau Cottage, where Prime Minister Justin Trindade has been living since he was sworn in in 2015, because 24 Sussex is in dire need of renovation. Photo by MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, OSGG Since 1951, the Prime Minister of Canada has officially resided on 24 Sussex Drive, a 35-room mansion, about a 10-minute drive from the House of Commons. The property is unique among the G20 countries as it is purely a residence, with minimal office facilities or space for entertainment.
Advertising 3
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
Sorry, but this video failed to load. The Prime Minister of Canada usually performs almost all the functions of his executive office outside the former Langevin Block, an 1889 four-story office building overlooking Parliament Hill. The house in 24 Sussex, meanwhile, is dedicated almost exclusively to food, sleep and family time. Prime Minister Steven Harper was photographed in 2013 in his office in the now renamed Langevin Block. While the Prime Minister has another fancy office in the Central Bloc of Parliament, this is usually where the executive parts of their work do. Photo by David Kawai for Postmedia News If a visiting world leader is in town, they are usually placed either in the Rideau Hall (Governor-General’s house) or in a nearby hostel. For press conferences, banquets and formal events, the prime minister’s office relies on a host of government halls or rooms for rent. The NCC report describes how all these functions could be merged into a single mega-facility that would better support “representative and official tasks”.
Advertising 4
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
“Most G7 and Commonwealth leaders receive official visitors to a venue dedicated to these purposes,” the report said. “Canada does not currently have such a facility.” The report is terribly silent on the fact that Canada already has a giant palace estate that can do most of these things, just that the Governor-General stays there instead of the Prime Minister. Photo by Tony Caldwell / QMI AGENCY The report also includes detailed summaries of homes in other G7 countries. The largest, by far, is in Italy: The Italian president lives in a palace of 1 million square feet. Downing Street 10 in the United Kingdom is shorter, at 71,000 square feet, but the building has office space, offices and ceremonial spaces in addition to apartments for the Prime Minister’s family. The Palazzo di Quirinale, official residence of the President of the Italian Republic. Unlike Canada, Italy had accumulated palaces of many thousands of years to choose from. Photo by Wikimedia Commons “While the previous prime ministers and their staff were ‘content’ with the space provided by the current housing facility, the building naturally limited the functions that could be performed and now lags behind other G7 and Commonwealth nations.” reads.
Advertising 5
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
In particular, however, the report also shows that both Australia and New Zealand house their prime ministers according to the Canadian model: A relatively small private home that is largely excluded from official activities. A section of the report ranks the G7 and Commonwealth nations by the size of the residence of the Heads of State or Government. Photo by the National Capital Commission Although the report does not provide any cost estimates, previous proposals for a custom-built Canadian White House reached $ 500 million. The plan, drawn up during the administration of Stephen Harper, called for the prime minister to be relocated to an off-street facility with offices for all prime ministers and an underground “safe haven / command center”. US President Barack Obama is meeting with advisers in the White House’s registry room in 2013. The “safe haven” is said to have been a Canadian version of the registry room. Photo by Photo by Pete Souza / White House via Getty Images Incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trinto grew up in Sussex at the age of 24, but since taking office in 2015 he has avoided living at home due to his widely recognized deteriorating condition. Instead, Trinto has spent the last seven years living in Rideau Cottage, a nearby mansion on Rideau Hall.
Advertising 6
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
Almost from its inception as a formal residence, basic maintenance at 24 Sussex has been neglected for decades, so that prime ministers should not be blamed for having built their nests at the expense of taxpayers. In the rare case that luxuries have been installed (such as a swimming pool under Pierre Trudeau and a whirlpool under Brian Mulroney) it has been done with private resources. Do not worry. you did not pay for any of them. Photo by NCC / Handout / Ottawa Sun / Postmedia Network As a result of chronic neglect, the building has degraded dangerous electrical, plumbing and firefighting systems. In 2016, an audit found that even the cheapest home remodeling option would be $ 36 million. more than three times the estimated value of the property. This is a detail from the front page of Ontario NDP’s new election platform. As of press time, it is not clear why he shows an unknown man drinking a beer outdoors with a raised rose. Photo by Ontario NDP
IN OTHER NEWS
Excluded racial recruitment – a practice that has generally gone out of fashion in Canada since the 1950s – has recently become widely accepted by academics. A report by Tyler Dawson of the National Post found that three top-level positions at the University of Waterloo are explicitly forbidden to either “cisgender men” or non-natives. While Canadian employers have long sought to increase the number of women and minorities in their ranks, it is only in recent years that job advertisements have begun to explicitly exclude candidates by race or gender. In 2013, a CBC announcement looking for a new host for the children’s programming channel invited applicants from “every race except the Caucasian.” Earlier this month, author Jamie Sarkonak identified a number of positions at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, among others, that explicitly prohibited men, whites, and even jobseekers.
Advertising 7
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
No one has ever blamed a Canadian campaign slogan for inspiration, and the upcoming Ontario election does not seem to be an exception. Here are the finalists
Progressive Conservatives: ‘Do It’ NDP: “Possible. Ready. I work for you “ Ontario Liberals: “The choice is yours”
Quebec and Alberta have long been Canada’s top producers in electorally doomed reactionary political parties (they also manage to establish a viable one every now and then). We will soon see what name will apply to the Canadian Party of Quebec, an Anglo-Quebec group formed to run in the Quebec provincial elections in October. The signature issue being challenged by the new party is Bill 96, a series of language restrictions that include measures that could force doctors to speak exclusively to patients in French (unless the patient in question enjoys the status of “historical »Quebec English). In fact, it is the second party to be formed in explicit opposition to the bill. The other, founded last week, is the Québec Mouvement. Canada has just become the first country in the world to track transgender identification among its citizens, posting the first results in a census package this week. The chart above confirms a trend that has been observed in smaller surveys. Trans and non-binary identification rates are rising sharply, especially among young people. Photo by Statistics Canada Receive all this information and more in your inbox every day at 6 p.m. ET, sign up for the First Reading newsletter here.
Share this article on your social network
Advertising
This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below ….
