National Post (National Edition)
For sale: Trudeau’s $2M rental home
Next residence Stornoway or 24 Sussex?
OTTAWA • There’s a for sale sign on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s front lawn, but that’s not his doing.
Trudeau and his family have lived in Ottawa’s tony Rockcliffe neighbourhood since 2013, as tenants, renting a private home from a banker.
The home is not far from Stornoway, the official residence of the leader of the opposition, and not too far from 24 Sussex Drive, where he grew up.
Trudeau’s rented home is not officially listed yet, so there’s no official asking price, but real estate agents say the rumoured price is expected to be just shy of $2 million — a big increase from the $805,000 it sold for in 2001.
Trudeau’s critics may seize on that number to cast doubt on his professed desire to fight for the middle class. He launched a key salvo in that battle on Monday, unveiling a tax proposal that would cut taxes for families of modest means by increasing taxes on those with incomes of more than $200,000.
The Georgian Revival-style home that the Trudeaus call home may have six bedrooms and a swimming pool, but that doesn’t mean the party leader is paying a lot of rent, said Helen McCallum, the listing agent.
She said Trudeau was able to get the place for a reasonable rent. “The rent does not reflect the price,” she said. “He just got lucky. The tenant left in November and the house was empty.”
For privacy reasons, she was not able to say whether a sale might mean Trudeau will have to move out sooner than planned.
The house made headlines in 2014 when a suspected prowler walked into the kitchen and left a note beside kitchen knives, while Trudeau’s wife and three young children slept upstairs. Turns out, the break-in was more of a drunken walkabout, as an intoxicated teen was blamed for the inadvertent scare and no charges were laid.
If Trudeau improves his party’s standing in the Oct. 19 federal election, as the polls suggest, he might get to move into the home now occupied by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair or Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“Any idea which one,” McCallum asked. “That’s the big thing everybody wants to know.”