Carney Launches Makeover For Canada’s Most Famous Fixer-upper

OTTAWA — Mark Carney is launching a national design competition and fundraising campaign to save Canada’s most famous abandoned home — the prime minister’s official residence at 24 Sussex Drive.

The historic home has sat vacant since 2015, too rundown for any prime minister to live in. On Friday, Carney said he wants to end the decades of neglect, announcing an independent design-and-build competition to restore the property.

“We will not let it crumble,” Carney said. “We will set it right.”

The last prime minister to live in the official residence was Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Once he moved out in 2015, the rats and rodents moved in.

The 35-room mansion, originally built in 1867-68, has since been gutted from the inside and cleared of asbestos. An adjoining pool house — constructed for former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau — is believed to still have mould and is deemed unsafe.

Carney said he will not live in the official residence, emphasizing it will be for future prime ministers and their families to enjoy. He said it's the responsibility of his government “to leave things better than we found them.”

The house, which has welcomed such world leaders as Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill and President John F. Kennedy is “greater than a mere backdrop to history,” Carney said.

“It's a symbol of the public office, of the head of our federal government, and of the democratic traditions that office represents. And yet it has not been cared for with the respect that it deserves.”

Justin Trudeau, who spent much of his childhood at 24 Sussex while his father was prime minister, did not move back in when he became prime minister in 2015. For decades, a succession of prime ministers, Trudeau included, avoided rebuilding or renovating the residence for fear of the political backlash that could come with spending public money on the prime minister's home, a concern that has only intensified amid Canada's housing crisis.

The winner of the competition will be announced July 1, 2027 — Canada Day. The winning team, which must be a Canadian firm, will be responsible for the design and reconstruction of the project, which is expected to cost at least tens of millions of dollars.

The Rideau Hall Foundation will lead a non-partisan campaign with the goal of raising “most” costs for the project. Carney said the government will limit donations to philanthropist organizations and Canadians. Corporate donations won’t be accepted.

The house “will be built by Canadians for Canadians,” Carney proclaimed.

Without explicitly mentioning President Donald Trump, Carney said Canadians have rallied behind one another since he took office in which he was largely elected because voters believed he’d be the best leader to negotiate with the president amid a trade war. He pointed to Canadians choosing B.C. wine over California wine and vacationing in Prince Edward Island instead of Florida as examples of a growing sense of national unity.

Looking into the camera, Carney spoke directly to Americans: “Canadians believe in Canada. Canadians are getting behind this country. Canadians are making decisions with where they travel, what they purchase, who they support, the institutions they support.”

Carney lives in a smaller house on the grounds of Rideau Hall, next to the home of Canada’s governor general.

Former prime ministers, including Harper, Trudeau, Jean Chrétien, Kim Campbell and Paul Martin, backing the effort to reconstruct the home, as does Mila Mulroney, the widow of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Chrétien and Harper previously proposed a fundraising campaign, but Trudeau rejected the idea, arguing it could create the perception that donors were buying influence.