Sussex Drive

As always, I'm your host, Peter Mazru.

My guest this week is Dean Beeby, a journalist and author who's co-written a book about 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada's Prime Minister, along with the Global Mail's Ian Bailey.

Canada's current Prime Minister, Mark Kearney, isn't living in 24 Sussex, of course.

Neither did his predecessor.

Well, Mackenzie King was behind the expropriation.

So Prime Minister Mackenzie King, our wartime prime minister, longest serving prime minister, in 1943, essentially ordered his cabinet to approve an expropriation of the property.

So why did he want to do that? Well, one of the reasons is that the properties along the Ottawa River there, along Sussex Drive, were being snapped up by embassies and missions and foreign delegations.

And that was sort of the last private property there.

She says the changes will ensure fairness.

Efforts to raise $50 million to renovate 24 Sussex Drive has reached almost $6 million.

More than 4,000 Canadians have donated so far.

The Globe and Mail says the official Prime Minister's residence has been vacant for a decade.

Ian always joins us in his Globe and Mail role, and he's still with the Globe and Mail, but he's out celebrating the book that he and Dean Beebe have now published and is trying to sell a few of those books.

So we're going to have Ian on to talk about 24 Sussex Drive.

the past and future of Canada's official residents in a minute here on the Tim Power Show.

And if Steve Tomlin is listening, he will know better than I that, of course, was Canadian historian Harold Innes.

He just got off a bus.

This tells you how dedicated an author he is.

To tell you about his book about the center of Canada, 24 Sussex Drive.

The Past and Future of Canada's Official Residence.