Harrington Lake Harrington Lake Harrington Lake () is the name of the summer residence and all-season retreat of the Prime Minister of Canada, and also the name of the land which surrounds it. The property is located near Meech Lake—where the Meech Lake Accord was negotiated in 1987—approximately 35 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, in Gatineau Park, amidst the Gatineau Hills in Quebec. The property is not open to the public, but the Mackenzie King Estate, the retreat of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King at Kingsmere, is a tourist attraction located 2 kilometres south in the park. Since 1986, the 5.4-hectare (13-acre)
Gatineau Park was to be the first national park created by the first parks service in the world, the Dominion Parks Branch. On December 3, 1913, Dominion Parks Commissioner James B. Harkin wrote to Deputy Minister of the Interior William Cory, arguing for the creation of a nationwide system of parks, the first of which was to be Gatineau Park. In his memo, Harkin said: A few months later, on Cory's suggestion, Harkin wrote Quebec Minister of Mines and Forests Charles Devlin inquiring whether he would help establish a national park in the Gatineau district. Although provincial officials wrote back that the