Canada Guide
Ontario
Laurier House
Address: 335 Laurier Ave East
Opening time: April to mid-May Mon– Fri 9am–5pm; mid-May to early Oct Mon– Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm
Price: $3.95
Website: www.pc.gc.ca
About 2km east of Byward Market is the Laurier House, former home of prime ministers Sir Wilfred Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King. Laurier, Canada's first French-speaking prime minister, served from 1896 to 1911, while Mackenzie King, his self-proclaimed "spiritual son", was Canada's longest-serving (1921–30 and 1935–48).
The house is dominated by King's possessions, including his crystal ball and a portrait of his obsessively adored mother, in front of which he placed a red rose every day. Other mementoes include the programme Abraham Lincoln held the night of his assassination, a painting by Rogier van der Weyden and a guest book signed by Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Nehru, the Dionne quintuplets and Shirley Temple. The house also contains a reconstruction of a study belonging to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his role in the 1956 Arab– Israeli dispute.