But, above all, there’s a parsimony among Canadians when it comes to politicians spending money on themselves that’s almost alien to Americans.

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As a result, years of deferred maintenance have left 24 Sussex basically an uninhabitable dump, as I wrote in my article. Certainly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t move his family in after coming to office. But proposing to spend tens of millions of dollars to deal with the problem is so radioactive that no one, including Mr. Trudeau, has been willing to touch it.

“We might be an incredibly diverse society, but when it comes to our political culture, we’re 100 percent Presbyterian,” Peter Donolo, the director of communications for Jean Chrétien when he was prime minister, told me. “I think there’s something healthy in a political culture that’s egalitarian and that looks down on ostentation.”