Jay Hill Suggests PM Consider ‘Trading Spaces’ with Military Family
MP Chides Paul Martin’s Complaints about his ‘Drafty’, Rent-free Residence

November 23, 2004

Ottawa – Jay Hill, Member of Parliament for Prince George-Peace River suggested today the Prime Minister try living in military housing this winter while providing a military family the chance to experience life at 24 Sussex Drive. Hill was responding to Paul Martin’s complaints that his official residence is cold and drafty.

Shortly after proposing the swap, based upon the hit television series Trading Spaces where families live in and renovate each others’ homes, Hill delivered the following statement in the House of Commons protesting annual rent increases on decaying on-base housing units:

“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says he’s not looking forward to another bitter winter in his cold, drafty home at 24 Sussex Drive. Welcome to the real world of our on-base military families! By introducing petitions signed by supportive Canadians from coast to coast . . . I’ve raised their deplorable living conditions 17 times in this Parliament . . . to no avail. To draw an appropriate comparison, I’d like to quote from a letter that appeared in Saturday’s Ottawa Sun .

‘Perhaps Mrs. Martin would like to try doing dishes in my kitchen during the winter when you need socks, slippers and thermal underwear to protect yourself from the draft coming through the walls. Or maybe she would like to have to de-ice her children’s curtains before she opens them in the morning because somehow during the night they’ve become frozen to the windows. Let’s not forget the water-based paint which chips off the oil-based paint which chips off the lead-based paint.’

That is signed by Michelle Edwards of Petawawa

And I bet the Prime Minister’s rent doesn’t go up every year either. . . oh yes . . . I forgot . . . he doesn’t pay any rent!”

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For more information, please contact:
Jay Hill, M.P. (613) 947-4524