Ottawa: Loose Security

From Iqaluit, I flew back down to Ottawa, to where I had left my car behind before flying out to Vancouver about a month earlier. I feel like I just finished making a very large complex circle that is probably about the size of Europe. When you realize how large this country actually is, I find it amazing that it actually functions in any sense of the word. With such diverse peoples, environments, concerns, etc, etc, the fact that we hold it all together somehow is pretty impressive.

And that makes for a nice segue to Ottawa, the place that basically holds Canada together. Which makes for a nice segue to photographing the home of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I say 'Stephen Harper,' but to be honest I don't really need to since every Prime Minister lives in the same place now: 24 Sussex Drive. Because of this, I wasn't really too concerned about getting permission to take the photograph of the house since everybody knows where he lives and there are tours that go right by the house and point it out. So, I have to admit that I was a little bit lax about this legwork involved for the photograph.

In the week before arriving in Ottawa, I started calling the National Capital Commission, who takes care of various governmental properties, including 24 Sussex, regarding getting within the gates of the house to take the photograph. They were skeptical to say the least. One woman said that there is little chance that I'd be allowed on the property since she had only ever been there once, and she works for the place. But, they kept shuffling me off to other people to call within the organization. I was getting more frantic and had still not received permission by the time I arrived in Ottawa.

So, I took action and went to 24 Sussex myself. I rang the doorbell at the gate and an RCMP officer came out. I talked to him and told him about my project. He told me that I had to call the PMO (Prime Minister's Office), that they're the ones who deal with that sort of thing and he gave me the number and the name of a person to talk to. That was a Saturday, so on the Monday, I call the PMO, talked to the woman whose name the officer gave me. I told her about the project and she gave me a very unexpected response: "Sure. Does 2 o'clock this afternoon work for you?" Wow. That was easy.

I went there that afternoon, they let me in the gates and I got a photograph of 24 Sussex Drive, unimpeded by the gates or shrubbery that surround the property. The strange thing is, the place was crawling with people: gardeners, landscapers, security personnel, painters, you name it. I was impressed that the home of the leader of the world's second largest country was so relaxed about letting some guy with a camera on the property, as well as what appeared to be a decent percentage of Ottawa's population. Really, I had more trouble trying to find the addresses of some of Halifax's city councilors than getting into 24 Sussex. So, that makes it 7 for 8. I'm over halfway!