Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre vows to fire envoy as Canada buys a $9 million condo for diplomat in NYC
By Mike Le Couteur
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OTTAWA (CTV Network) — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to fire Canada’s consul general in New York City if the Tories wins the next federal election.
In a post on social media, Poilievre called the former journalist, Tom Clark, a Liberal media hack in response to the government’s decision to buy a $9-million condominium in Manhattan.
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) confirms the department purchased a unit in the Steinway Tower located at 111 West 57th St., in an area known as “billionaire’s row.” The condo will be used for “networking receptions, official briefings, and hospitality events such as discussions with business and political leaders,” wrote Global Affairs spokesperson Jean-Pierre Godbout.
GAC adds the current residence, located at 550 Park Ave. in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighbourhood, was last renovated in 1982 and does not meet new building codes nor standards of the department. Citing significant investments needed to modernize the property, the department “recommended a relocation to a new, smaller, more suitable, and more economical apartment,” Godbout told CTV News.
Godbout says the move could save Canadian taxpayers more than $2 million as well as reduce ongoing maintenance and property taxes.
According to a listing on the real estate website StreetEasy, the 3,600-square foot residence boasts three bedrooms, four bathrooms and “stunning powder room is finished in jewel onyx.” A level of luxury that Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman calls tone deaf in the current housing crisis, “I think a lot of Canadians are looking that are looking to this, and they say they need a residence too, and they need somewhere to rent and $9 million on an apartment at a time in at a time where Canadians can’t afford to eat or house themselves, I say again, is outrageous.”
Despite that criticism and expense of having a Manhattan residence, former diplomat and current Sen. Peter Boehm points out it’s an important place for Canada to promote its culture and trade. “If you want to play in the big leagues, you have to pay to some degree,” Boehm told CTV News in an interview.
Boehm admits the numbers may seem high, but adds that he has seen a number of other country’s missions in his travels and he believes Canada’s is on par. “Canadian heads of mission, so ambassadors or consuls general are housed very well and generally in the middle of the pack. So not so lavish and also not so shabby, but pretty much where we are as a country,” said Boehm.
More than a decade ago, the department of Foreign Affairs under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives started a program to sell off a number of properties and downsize others. Macdonald House at One Grosvenor Square in London, the then-residence of Canada’s High Commissioner in the U.K. was sold for $530 million to a developer from India.
Proceeds from the sale of the posh historic mansion went to help offset renovations of the High Commission’s current location Canada House, which is located at Trafalgar Square. Then-High Commissioner Gordon Campbell estimated that once the upgrades were completed there would be between $150 million and $200 million that could flow back to the central treasury,
Global Affairs Canada has not responded to questions about whether or not the department intends to sell off the old consul general’s residence in New York City or how much the Park Avenue residence is worth.
Asked if a Conservative government would look to sell the newly purchased Manhattan condo, Lantsman was non committal, “I think a new Pierre Poilievre government is going to look right across government to find efficiencies and savings for all Canadians on all fronts,” the Conservative deputy leader told CTV News.
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