24 Sussex Dive

Louis and Jeanne St‑Laurent packed up their Ottawa apartment in late April 1951 and moved into 24 Sussex Drive, ten months after the lumber magnate Joseph Merrill Currier’s old house along the Ottawa River was chosen as the official residence of the prime minister. Despite a $600,000 tab for the purchase and renovation of the property, and despite the $5,000 the St‑Laurents would pay in annual rent, the “gracious and dignified mansion” that the Globe and Mail inanely compared to 10 Downing in London and to the White House in Washington had an electric doorbell that didn’t work. Talk about foreshadowing.

By the time John and Olive Diefenbaker moved into 24 Sussex, in the summer of 1957, a fence had been built around the grounds, which eliminated the need for a functioning bell. But the prime minister and his wife felt it necessary to install an “automatic clothes washer and dryer” and to replace a “noisy dishwasher” before throwing a dinner for Queen...