I've come to the conclusion, if it were up to me. I would take old 24 Sussex and turn it into the often talked about "missing" portrait gallery. However, I would take this "Canada or Crown Gallery" for lack of better word, and add in a mandate to display a history of past Prime Ministers, and to make the gallery more interesting, I would have have it also have a gallery from the general "Crown Collection" - gifts of state received, random artifacts, etc. With this you can really stretch out the spending over say a decade to get it really up and running. I think this gutted building could be converted to a gallery more efficiently (in terms of dollars) then a Prime Ministers residence. I think this would be a really good way to use the building and could really synergize with Rideau Hall as a destination.
I generally don't like how "cheap" and dare I say small minded Canadians are in this type of stuff. The history with the "executive" branch air fleet is embarrassing.
In the past I've been very in favour of the "tear down" and rebuild with like a TV show idea that was thrown around a while ago. However, I think the lot is fundamentally to small.
It's very hard to justify this stuff when the country is faced with such challenging cost of living issues, and a housing crisis that has been a long time coming, and won't be solved in the short term. Because of this, and the very real fiscal constraints facing the country moving forward (boomers retiring, infrastructure demands, climate change and a need to re-militarize after the peace dividend era) the fiscal pressures are going to mount *significantly*. I think "Rideau Cottage" gives the State a lot of time to figure this out. I would kick this out to Parliament to study and the State/Canada to come up with a thoughtful process for what we actually need. We need transparency and leadership outside of the current PM in this regard, as the PM is frankly concerned with much bigger issues,
and it's really not up to the PM of the day to solve this.
I've actually put a lot of thought into this. I think if we are going to do a new build, doing what the NCC has had envisioned with using a large part of Rockcliffe Park is what I would do. Ottawa has a lot of empty green space and that is imo pretty clear it's been held in reserve for a proper PMO has the country continues to evolve and grow. This is Rockcliffe Driveway.
I'm very keenly aware of the multi-decade (~30 years) refurbishment of the Parliamentary district which has been consuming
many billions of dollars. This is the real show right now, and I think it's fitting 24 Sussex is not a priority. What's really interesting is what they will do to "Block 1" after they do "Block 2". This is the PMO block with the Privy Council Offices. This is the beating heart of the executive council of Canada. What they should do is demolish the old office block behind Langevin Block/PMO Building, widen the courtyard between the two buildings and really think about movement of vehicles in and out. Finally get rid of the silly cones kept on Metcalfe street for the PMO motor pool. However, this raises questions of the extend of the tunnel system on the Hill. I suspect there is proper garage that is used and not just the side door on Metcalfe. Why I'm saying this is because if they rebuild the Privy Council Building behind the PMO, they could build a Executive flat, which along with Meech Lake could be enough, however I would argue that doesn't facilitate a good environment for children, which is a really a key design focus.
This question comes down to what system we are intending to design. The "Executive Flat" is more like 10 Downing Street. Rideau Cottage is a great option if we want to create an environment for children as there is a lot of land in that corner of Rideau estate to use landscaping to create an enclave for children of all ages to have a meaningful childhood in a safe environment. However, if you want to do "White House North" what that means is making it a "working" estate. It boils down to "Where is the Cabinet". The PM has many offices. He has his Centre Block Office (modest, famously less expansive then the Opposition's Office which holds the cabinet table Canada fought WW2 with), he has the PMO Block which is integrated with the PCO. It's a hybrid between the political PMO & the real machine of government: PCO.
Do we want to create space between the PCO and PMO to further the goals of Good Government or is the existing system serving us well? These are some of reasons why I think it needs to be really studied and thought of more about the continuing journey of building the country as we continue to grow from the roughly 8 million we were in WW1 to the country of 50 million, 60 etc.
If you choose we need a "working residence" like the White House, then what does that really mean? It would mean this is where the Cabinet sits, as I think most people would agree we need to do things that strengthen "Cabinet" government over the rather limited bandwidth system we have been living with for a number of generations of PMs now where things are so centralized in the PMO. Would creating some space between the Privy Council (and Privy Council Chamber) and the PMO improve this? As the main fault in the Trudeau government is that it was like a 32 bit chip in a 64 bit world- significantly bottlenecked in the PMO.
My understanding is basically you have the Mackenzie King cabinet table in Centre Block, which is the WW2 Cabinet, and now the Office of Official Opposition, you have "
The Cabinet Room" in the PMO building, and then you have the
Privy Council Chamber in the PCO, but I'm unsure where it really is in "block 1". The Privy Council Chamber is slightly different then the Cabinet Room. One use of it imo would be like National Security Meetings and NISICOP type situations, as one is inducted into the Privy Council (for life I believe) once you get anywhere near that top echeclon of the "machine of government" which is removed from the political calculations of the PMO and how the "Cabinet Room" is the hybrid. I could very well see the existing PMO building consumed by the needs of Parliament and more spaces for the business of government on the Hill- like NSICOP and other extremely secure meeting locations or NSIRA. These are fundamentally Privy Council institutions as they are are the machine of government bodies over the political PMO. I could envision "Block 1" evolving (as the Hill has evolved greatly over the 20th century" into being fundamental about the role of the Privy Council and creating some separation with Cabinet.
It's cliche, but I wish we would have a more grown up conversation about this, educate people about our democracy and take this on as a "nation building" project with a much longer time frame.
As someone who believes in the somewhat archaic belief in *Cabinet* government and the executive branch as a *team* of Members of Parliament who should have some real independence I am fully open to all options here.
I'm fairly confident there is a vision in the NCC where the driveway to Rideau Hall is rerouted to the large roundabout in Rockcliffe Park and the long term vision is for the PMO to exist opposite of Rideau Hall in Rockcliffe Park, occupying the lawn found on Rockcliffe Drive.
But there are real questions here about working residence vs a secure residence for the children of the PM.
What's clear in my mind is the existing lot should be left behind. We can do Rideau Cottage or we can do a proper working residence with chief of staff & cabinet offices and a private enclave for children. To accomplish this we need more space like the White House with it's working wings & its private residence.
We need to be a country where a child today dreams of leading the country through both dark days and great days. This file actually matters if we do it the right in a way that fights against the cynicism and lack of faith & pride in our system that dominates our culture.
/end word salad
Edit: Behind the Scenes of Trudeau's first day (2016) if you want to see inside the PM's Office in Parliament (which is rarely used my understanding; it's a place to get ready for QP and votes of Parliament)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE1WHg5-Hws
I can not find a tour Thomas Mulcair did of his Office, which use to be the PMs office in Parliament. Much more grand. I was lucky to be in that office once for work and sat at the WW2 cabinet table. Added just for fun. Ultimately the PM, in this unique not quite federal system Canada truly is, the role of the PM is: national unity and the US relationship first, which is to say, National Security and Defence. I think if you took a 50 year horizon one would see how maybe it's better to let Langevin Block be absorbed into Parliament more to serve the needs of Parliament over the Executive Branch, and maybe there is something to the idea of the PM's residence as a working residence. It really does matter we strengthen our primary office of unity in this post modern world which means more stuff like Trudeau speaking at his door.
Chretien's 1995 "
Would you destroy Canada?" speech from 24 Sussex and Trudeau's version of fireside chats during the pandemic come to mind of the moments where we really do need "the spot" the PM rallys the nation from. Chretien's was from like a dimly lit Office in a building falling apart lol where he held off an intruder with a carved jade statue.
The security issues should not be understated. I don't ever want to live the day Ben Harper or the children of the PM is killed by some wacko jumping a fence. We've actually had a lot of near misses from the murder of Nathan Cirillo and the storming of centre block, to Jean Chretien's bedroom last stand, to the crashing of Rideau Cottage by a heavily armed wacko, to the take over of the Hill by the "Wellington Street Regulars" who appear to have figured out doors this last couple days.
If we ever had a
"I can announce an operation to kill Osama Bin Laden" moment which would be Chretien's "Would you destroy Canada" moment, we can't really do it in the House as you'd have non stop heckling and rules of procedure, so that's how you end up with "
Mah Papers" speeches outside Rideau Cottage
I've definitely watched on BBC News multiple moments of rain coming down on the closed street of 10 Downing Street, but nothing like Sunak's election call lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXB2EzDd8Mo
Someone climbs the White House fence like once a year, and this is only going to go up with social media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnZ6FQXw0I8 We don't want to turn things into a fortress, but like our Parliament was stormed, our capital occupied (on-to-Ottawa 1935 would have been the same outcome as the Freedom Convoy), 10 Downing Street has been bombed, hijacked buses have been driven onto the Hill and the White House had to raise their fence because of all the fence climbing. What is most valuable is... space.. so you can create space for intervention before
lethal force is applied (like in Congress or Parliament Hill when both buildings have been stormed in our recent times). The great hall to the Library of Parliament will always have bullet holes in it.
Big wide open lawns can accommodate both buffer space for security, intervention but also media and can be animated by the NCC letting us into some of the spaces that belong to everyone but functionally need to be reserved and secure. We don't want our spaces bugged for example.
Contrast Canada with our occasional throne speech with Russia's yearly State of the Nation address or the US's State of the Union address, a Westminister PM has few times they actually directly speak to the country. And considering Canada is a country that has perennial unity issues, is physically sandwiched between super powers over a vast domain, and has a growth model of rapid population growth from global migration- I really do think we need to consider this stuff seriously and the post modern operations of the primary unity figure: the Canadian Prime Minister.
This file also contextually what the country would look like if and when we move to our "Crowned Republic" state and replace the House of Windsor with some other form of appointed or elected Viceregal/GG/President. We are already, functionally, what I think the UK would actually evolve into if they ever moved on from the current House of Windsor where a Viceroy represents continuation of the ancient Crown from the House of Stuart, House of Hanover, House of Windsor (Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha) to the People themselves: i.e that image of the
Throne of Canada occupied by a representative not from the muddy & bloody political arts but of the people more abstract. Had Terry Fox lived, he would have been our greatest viceregal.
/end bonus word salad.
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