Idiotic attitude towards Canada’s official residences.

Tory leadership hopeful Erin O’Toole is falling into the trap of joining the twidiots who are critical of the $8 Million being spent to renovate the summer residence at Harrington Lake in Gatineau. Yesterday he tweeted, “Millions of Canadians are losing their jobs and the PM is building a backup mansion..”  You can argue about the cost of the renovations but its lazy thinking to try to pin it on this or any other PM. We sometimes find Trudeau annoying when he gives vague answers to reporters’ questions at his daily briefings, and he has been in the past a bit too eager to chase every virtuous cause he encounters. But he has done a decent job since the pandemic hit—not the least of which was moving with boldness to pump money into the economy. And as for the summer compound at Harrington Lake, it is the National Capital Commission that are dictating the renovations, not Trudeau. In fact it has been the reluctance by a string of Prime Ministers to be seen to be lavishing money on repairs to their residences that has brought us to the current state of affairs, where 24 Sussex is a dilapidated mess and that no significant money has been spent at Harrington Lake since the 1950s. It is already a disgrace that we do not have a proper principal residence for our Prime Minister. Canada is a big country with approaching 40 Million people and with a strong economy, which hopefully will return to something approaching its former robustness after the pandemic is over. Jean Chretien who last occupied 24 Sussex 17 years ago talked about water pouring through the ceiling when it rained. It may well be that the answer for 24 Sussex would be to tear it down and rebuild with something reflective of the modern Canada, rather than spend millions trying to retrofit a house that was never intended for the purpose it has been serving. Back to O’Toole, he should know better than to take these easy cheap shots. If you want to be Prime Minister, start acting like one.