Canada Fancy

“Justin Trudeau’s Official Home: Unfit for a Leader or Anyone Else,” chortled a 2018 New York Times headline, in reference to Canada’s “most famous home renovation project.” Evidently, the nation’s refusal to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on upgrading 24 Sussex Drive from a “rotting” carcass to a habitable residence for its leaders exemplified a distinctly Canadian strain of parsimony (while also doubling as a rebuke to Trump’s gilded White House). It points to a generalized Canadian aesthetic sensibility of quaintness and restraint—stone, brick, nice views to nature—and also poses the question “What does Canadian swank look like?” One potential answer can be found down the road from 24 Sussex at the Moshe Safdie–designed National Gallery of Canada. On a recent visit, I sat in the museum’s library, taking in the tasteful wooden paneling and the gentle slope of the ribbed concrete ceiling. As just the right amount of daylight filtered through the glazed wall, complementing the recessed lighting, sage-green carpeting (lightly worn), and mirrored surfaces of the (slightly dated) study tables, I heaved a sigh of relief and thought: Finally, some real Canada fancy!