24 Sussex Drive saga shows Canada is too complacent (and cheap) to have nice things
As a metaphor for Canada, it is almost too pat. But there is no more perfect monument to the state of our country than 24 Sussex Drive, the official and now abandoned residence of the Prime Minister.
This could have been enough. Time and momentum in this new-ish nation could have had their way, allowing even an unlovely house to age into a proper symbol. This could have happened, if we just maintained the thing, and renovated the residence regularly.After several attempts to upgrade the house – including the infamous addition of a now-useless pool by Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s – spending cash on upkeeping 24 Sussex was soon declared political anathema.
We’ve been so ideally situated on America’s rump, and thus so protected economically and militarily, that we’ve cultivated a comfortable leadership class that treats politics like low-stakes water polo. Partisan politics in Canada has become the purview of those ambitious enough to climb above their station, but too lacking in talent to go somewhere that matters.
I’m not even picking on the Liberals, here – although Justin Trudeau knew that the home was so terrible that he refused to let his children live in it after he became Prime Minister in 2015.
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