24 SUSSEX DRIVE RENOVATIONS

I’m afraid we can’t even fix up a damned house. The official prime ministerial residence, 24 Sussex drive, has long been notorious as a drafty, ill-maintained, crumbling fire trap. There were solid political reasons for this: No prime minister wanted to be accused of spending public funds to gussy up their breakfast nook, so for decades the strategy was to endure the building’s rustic conditions and hope your family wasn’t killed by an electrical fire.

The house definitely needed renovation, but plans to do so are now on permanent hiatus after estimates came in at nearly $100 million. It’s not the White House; 24 Sussex is nothing more than a mansion originally built by a successful Ottawa lumberman. And yet, the powers that be cannot make it livable without also converting it into Canada’s most expensive house by a factor of about $40 million.