Prime minister Mark Carney released his “mandate letter,” singular, yesterday following the “Cabinet planning forum,” which is how he’s re-branded a retreat—because nothing says Canada’s New Government™ like renaming everything. And the thing is, it’s not much of a mandate letter at all­, but rather a press release that lists seven priorities that essentially tasks ministers to figure out how their files fit into these priorities and do them, which are sufficiently broad that makes it hard to actually hold anyone to account, which was supposed to be the whole reason why Justin Trudeau made the mandate letters public in the first place (though his too were full of repetitive boilerplate language and values statements, but they did at least have some specific items for each minister).

Note: Apologies for this being late/incomplete, but I’ve been really sick the last couple of days, but I at least wanted to put something out before all of the links went stale.

In case you missed it:

• My National Magazine profile of new justice minister Sean Fraser.
• My weekend column that points to the big decisions that Mark Carney is going to have to make about the Senate.
• My column demonstrates why we’re not really headed toward a two-party system in Canada, because it’s largely based on a false premise.
• My Loonie Politics Quick Take on Carney’s creeping presidentialism with those “decision notes” he’s been signing for the cameras.

Ukraine Dispatch

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1925153620225310721

Good reads:

• The itinerary for next week’s Royal Visit has been announced, and it’s very short.
• At the G7 finance ministers’ meeting, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent is part of the problem given that it’s his government’s policies causing economic turmoil.
• The CPP is moving away from its “net-zero” target, possibly because of legal liability exposure when it comes to the greenwashing legislation.
• It turns out the NDP caucus really wasn’t consulted about Don Davies being named interim chief, and some of them aren’t happy about it.
• Here is a peek behind the curtain at some of the organisational dysfunction within the NDP, particularly around certain staffing choices.
• Blake Shaffer explains what an east-west electricity grid could look like, and why it hasn’t happened yet.
• Anne Applebaum heads to Lviv to see where Ukraine is faring after three years of war, and finds a very changed atmosphere than we used to see.
• Stephen Saideman lists the ways in which Trump’s “Golden Dome” is not going to work, and is going to be very bad for Canada.
• Mike Moffatt correctly notes the incoherence of the federal government’s messaging on housing, because they won’t pick a lane on prices coming down.
• Moffatt and company also show how they would go toward tackling housing affordability if the federal government asked them to.
• Marty Patriquin questions whether Steven Guilbeault will once again try to take on Big Tech now that he’s in charge of Canadian Heritage again.
• Justin Ling takes on the nonsense that was Gregor Robertson’s answer about not lowering housing prices while building more supply.
• Emmett Macfarlane calls on the federal government to do more of its own work in standing up to provinces who while for money but don’t fund obligations.
• Susan Delacourt hears that the Liberal caucus is looking to flex a little more muscle, while Carney has yet to find a balance around ministerial communications.
• Paul Wells compares the early days of Trudeau’s government to Carney’s, and notes the lack of messages coming from the current one, leading to endless speculation.

Odds and ends:

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