Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, poses for a portrait after meeting with the public in the food court of Mapleview Centre in BurlingtonThe Globe and Mail
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has sold his Montreal home and is moving his family to a rented house in Ottawa's upscale Rockliffe Park.
The move takes him from a house just outside his Papineau riding to a neighbourhood that will now house all three federal party leaders: Official Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair's Stornoway residence; and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at 24 Sussex Dr., are both within walking distance.
That means that Mr. Trudeau will be living in the area he knew as a boy, when his father was prime minister, although this home will come without the servants and trappings of high office.
The Trudeaus' new home is a six-bedroom Georgian-style house, renovated about 10 years ago, on a 15,000-square-foot lot – a big, upscale place, but far from the most luxurious in Ottawa's most affluent neighbourhood, which houses the residences of most foreign ambassadors.
He and his wife Sophie Grégoire sold their house in Montreal's Town of Mount Royal, an upper-middle-class enclave just outside the lines of his Papineau riding.
For the Liberal Leader, who has been touring the country with a policy agenda that focuses on the plight of the middle class, the move marks the end of life near the constituents, and the start of a leader's life, in the area that houses most of the capitals and power brokers.
Mylène Dupéré, who is Mr. Trudeau's communications director, said that "unlike the other two party leaders," the Liberal Leader does not have a publicly paid residence, but wants to be near his children, Xavier and Ella-Grace.
"Being a father of two young children, he wants to move his family to Ottawa so he can see them more often," Ms. Dupéré said.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story on Justin Trudeau incorrectly spelled an Ottawa neighbourhood. It is Rockcliffe Park, not Rockliffe as published.
Campbell Clark