Blanket mandate letter worrying sign for Carney era, observers say

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OTTAWA — The prime minister’s decision to forego separate mandate letters for his cabinet is being met with raised eyebrows.

Former MP Kevin Vuong told the Toronto Sun the decision to issue a single mandate letter — instead of the customary individual directives to each cabinet minister — is yet another concerning diversion from the norm that’s become typical of the Prime Minister’s Office under Carney.

“No budget, no itineraries and now no mandate letters. Somebody should tell Prime Minister Carney that that’s not how a democracy works,” he said.

“By refusing to share, we have no choice but to ask: What does he have to hide? Is there something in his ministers’ mandate letters that he doesn’t want Canadians to see?”

On Wednesday, Carney issued a single mandate letter — free from Justin Trudeau-era platitudes like diversity, climate change and social justice and instead emphasizing trade, the economy and rebuilding Canada’s relations with the United States.

“This seems to be a government that is running less on emotional intelligence and virtue signalling,” said Stephen Taylor, a partner at Shift Media who nonetheless added Carney’s decision to withhold mandate letters does little but consolidate the power of the PMO.

“There’s some good words in the mandate letter, but a cabinet appointed full of Trudeau ministers just makes it suspect because that’s the government that will be implementing that agenda.”

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He said a cabinet boasting members such as Steven Guilbeault and Gregor Robertson should give Canadians pause.

Alex Brown, a director with the National Citizens Coalition, said forgoing mandate letters is another worrying sign of this government’s tendency to err on the side of unaccountability.

“Justin Trudeau produced 38 of these mandate letters in 2021,” he said.

“And yes, all 38 of those ended up being historic dumpster fires, but to just cut the corner here already — by the end of the summer this group will have only sat in the House of Commons for 20 days in total.”

While he said the mandate letter had some encouraging signs, Brown said what it lacked most of all was substance aside from almost peripheral mentions of key issues like immigration and housing.

“It’s as if they ran the Conservative election platform through ChatGPT and asked them to distil it to 1,000 words and then take out the details,” he said.

“It’s so high level it’s almost insulting — it doesn’t get into anything specific.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume