24 Sussex Drive, originally called Gorffwysfa and usually referred to simply as 24 Sussex, is the official residence of the prime minister of Canada, located in the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario. Built between 1866 and 1868 by Joseph Merrill Currier, it has been the official home of the prime minister of Canada since 1951. It is one of two official residences made available to the prime minister, the Harrington Lake estate in nearby Gatineau Park being the other.
History
The house at 24 Sussex Drive was originally commissioned in 1866 by lumberman and Member of Parliament Joseph Merrill Currier as a wedding gift for his wife-to-be Hannah Wright. It was completed in 1868 and Currier named it . It was sold for $30,000 in 1901, after Hannah Currier's death, to William Edwards.
In 1943, the federal Crown-in-Council used its power of expropriation to divest Gordon Edwards, nephew of William Edwards, of his title to the house, to consolidate Crown ownership of the lands along the Ottawa River. Edwards had fought the action, but eventually lost the dispute with the Canadian government in 1946 and died at the house later that year.
After several years of uncertainty, the government decided in 1950 to refurbish the property as a residence for the prime minister, the renovations costing just over $500,000. Louis St. Laurent was the first to take up residence in 1951. Since then, every prime minister—except for Kim Campbell (who resided at Harrington Lake) and Justin Trudeau (who has opted to reside at Rideau Cottage pending a review of work needed to repair the house)—has resided at 24 Sussex Drive for the duration of their times in office. Previous prime ministers lived at a variety of locations around Ottawa: Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King, for instance, lived at Laurier House in Sandy Hill. Laurier House was willed to the Crown upon Mackenzie King's death in 1950 and was thus also available for designation as the prime minister's official residence at the time.
Security at 24 Sussex was overhauled following an attempted assassination on November 5, 1995, by André Dallaire, who wandered around the house and grounds for nearly an hour before being confronted outside Jean Chrétien's bedroom by the Prime Minister's wife, Aline; she locked the door to the bedroom while Jean guarded it with an Inuit stone carving. Ultimately, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers arrested Dallaire. Measures put in place after the incident included the addition of several more guards and security cameras to the house's attaché, and the installation of crash-proof barriers within the main gates.
Use
Unlike 10 Downing Street or the White House, 24 Sussex Drive has been used almost exclusively as a place of residence (and therefore its address has never been widely used as a metonym for the Office of the Prime Minister). The prime minister's work is carried out by the Office of the Prime Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council building, near Parliament Hill. However, prime ministers have conducted some work at 24 Sussex Drive over the years, and informal meetings between prime ministers and other government or foreign officials have taken place in the house (foreign heads of state on state visits are officially hosted by the monarch or Governor General of Canada at Rideau Hall).
Despite the building not having any bureaucratic function, it has been the location of protests, such as when farmers drove their tractors in a convoy past the front of the property in 2006 and when Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the front gates in March 2007.
Stephen Harper is the most recent prime minister to have resided at 24 Sussex Drive, leaving in 2015. 24 Sussex has remained unoccupied, but staff use its kitchen to prepare meals which are then delivered to Trudeau's family at Rideau Cottage.