What’s happening at 24 Sussex Drive?

Mary Simon managed to go nearly five years as governor general without saying much that was controversial, but now she is about to leave office having thrown a bit of a haymaker. In doing so, she may have given some very useful ammunition to a group that’s trying to solve a typically Canadian problem.

The prime minister, she says, shouldn’t live on the grounds of Rideau Hall, the home of the governor general. Said another way: Get off my lawn.

Why is this even a question? For more than a decade, Canada has distinguished itself by being the only G7 country in which the head of government cannot safely live in their official residence because it is so dilapidated.

Ever since Louis St. Laurent was Canada‘s prime minister back in the 1950s, and all the way through Stephen Harper in the 21st century, our PMs have been entitled to live at 24 Sussex Drive, the public housing that comes included with the number one job in politics.

But ever since Jean Chretien had the job in the 1990s, the place has begun to well and truly fall apart. Each successive prime minister has been too terrified of the potential adverse public reaction to spend any money to fix the place, and it has steadily deteriorated to the point where Justin Trudeau declined to live there. He lived in Rideau Cottage, a much smaller home on the grounds controlled by the country’s governor general. 

Meanwhile, 24 Sussex Drive continues to rot. The last anyone checked, […] This is an excerpt. Read the full article at TVO.org.