Stornoway (residence)

Stornoway (residence)
File:Stornoway.JPG Stornoway
General information
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
Address	541 Acacia Avenue
Town or city	Rockcliffe Park Ottawa
Country	Canada
Coordinates
Current tenants	Leader of the Opposition
Construction started	1913
Completed	1914
Owner	The Queen in Right of Canada
Landlord	National Capital Commission
Design and construction
Architect	Alan Keefer
Other information
Number of rooms	34

Stornoway is the name of the official residence of the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in Canada, and has been used as such since 1950. It is provided in recognition of the opposition leader's position. Located at 541 Acacia Avenue in the Rockcliffe Park area of Ottawa, Stornoway has assessed value $4,225,000 (2008) (based on this value, which is only approximation of market value, the municipal property taxes are calculated) and is maintained with $70,000 a year in government funds. The property has been owned and managed by the National Capital Commission since April 1986. The lot size, with a frontage of 228 ft and depth of 225 ft, is slightly irregular.

It is some distance from Ottawa's Parliament Buildings, about 1.5 km farther than the Prime Minister's official residence. It is located in an area which contains many ambassadorial residences.

List of residents

Present, future and previous residents of the house include:

Official residents

• Rona Ambrose 2015–present
• Thomas Mulcair 2012–2015
• Nycole Turmel 2011–2012 (occasionally)
• Jack Layton 2011 (used only once)
• Michael Ignatieff 2009–2011
• Stéphane Dion 2006–2008
• Bill Graham 2006
• Stephen Harper 2002–2006
• John Reynolds 2001–2002
• Stockwell Day 2000–2001
• Preston Manning 1997–2000
• vacant as the leaders of the Bloc Quebecois refused to use the house 1993-1997
• Jean Chrétien 1990–1993
• John Turner 1984–1990
• Brian Mulroney 1983–1984
• Pierre Trudeau 1979–1980
• Joe Clark 1976–1979, 1980–1983
• Robert Stanfield 1968–1976
• John Diefenbaker 1963–1967
• Lester B. Pearson 1958–1963
• George A. Drew 1950–1955

Prior residents of Stornoway

• Dutch Royal Family 1941–1945, leased to them by Perley-Robertson
• Mr and Mrs Irvine Perley-Robertson 1923–1941
• Ascanio Joseph Major 1914–1923, local grocer

History

The house was built by architect Alan Keefer in 1914 for Ottawa grocer Ascanio J. Major and was given the name “Stornoway” by the second occupants, the Perley-Robertsons, after the ancestral home of the Perley family in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.

During the Second World War, from summer 1941 to 1945, Mrs. Perley-Robertson offered Stornoway to (then) Princess Juliana of the Netherlands as a temporary home-in-exile for the Dutch Royal Family, including the future Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Stornoway has served its present role as the Official Opposition Leader's residence since 1950, when it was purchased by a group of concerned citizens and later transferred to the Government of Canada.

Although the Bloc Québécois were the official Opposition from 1993 to 1997, party leader Lucien Bouchard declined to move into the residence as a mark of protest against the federal government, choosing instead to live in nearby Gatineau, Quebec. His successor, Gilles Duceppe, also did not reside in Stornoway.

Following the 1997 election, when the Reform Party displaced the Bloc Québécois to become the largest opposition party, the new official Opposition Leader, Preston Manning, declined to move in for a different reason: he protested that it was too extravagant and a waste of taxpayers' money, even joking that it should be used as a bingo hall to pay off the national debt. Manning asked that he be provided with a more 'modest' residence, but soon moved into Stornoway after his refusal to do so began to be portrayed in the media as a mark of disrespect for his position as Leader of the Opposition.

Renovations from 2002 to 2006 included an overhaul of the living room and kitchen, repair of the chimney, replacement of carpets, refinishing of hardwood floors, and painting, among other things.

Jack Layton, who had led the NDP to official Opposition status in the May 2, 2011 election, moved in a month later, but stated that he would continue to live in Toronto when Parliament was out of session. He died on August 22 of cancer; it was subsequently revealed that Layton and his wife Olivia Chow actually spent just one night in the house. His interim successor as NDP leader, Nycole Turmel, also did not formally move into the house, though she used Stornoway for entertaining purposes and slept over on occasion.

Out of the Leaders of the Opposition, John Reynolds, Bill Graham, and Rona Ambrose are the only interim party leaders to have resided at Stornoway; Ambrose is the current resident after being selected as interim leader of the Conservative Party after the defeat of Stephen Harper in the Canadian federal election, 2015. All other residents have been permanent party leaders (ratified at a leadership convention).

Inside Stornoway

Stornoway is a 34 room mansion with eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, living room, sitting room (2nd floor), and dining room, and sits on extensive grounds.

Besides the residents in the home, Stornoway is served by a staff of three: a chef, chauffeur, and household administrator. The public is not allowed to visit Stornoway but the NCC offers a virtual tour consisting of a few photographs with captions describing some of the details.

See also

• Rideau Hall
• 24 Sussex Drive

External links

• Stornoway in the Directory of Federal Real Property
• Stornoway