The Carney Seven: What the Mandate Letter means for Advocacy Communications and Government Relations
Context
Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken an unusually focused approach to governing by issuing a single mandate letter to his cabinet. Rather than assigning each minister a customized to-do list – typically including as many as a dozen priorities and action items per ministry – he has directed all ministers to work together to deliver on seven national priorities.
This decision marks a significant shift in how federal priorities will be communicated, resourced, and measured. It also sends a clear signal to stakeholders: if your proposal doesn’t advance one of these seven goals, it likely won’t be a priority for this government.
Carney’s Seven Priorities
The Prime Minister’s mandate letter to Cabinet stated:
“We will focus on seven priorities:
Establishing a new economic and security relationship with the United States and strengthening our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world.
Building one Canadian economy by removing barriers to interprovincial trade and identifying and expediting nation-building projects that will connect and transform our country.
Bringing down costs for Canadians and helping them to get ahead.
Making housing more affordable by unleashing the power of public-private cooperation, catalysing a modern housing industry, and creating new careers in the skilled trades.
Protecting Canadian sovereignty and keeping Canadians safe by strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, securing our borders, and reinforcing law enforcement.
Attracting the best talent in the world to help build our economy, while returning our overall immigration rates to sustainable levels.
Spending less on government operations so that Canadians can invest more in the people and businesses that will build the strongest economy in the G7.”
Texture's Analysis
First and foremost, this is an administration focused on simple, bold but digestible public-facing communications. Carney’s unique approach to mandate letters makes clear that message discipline and a unified narrative will be paramount for his government.
Carney is ensuring that every minister, department, and announcement supports the same core story: that this government is focused on the themes of affordability, national resilience, and economic competitiveness.
Expect all federal communications, from policy rollouts to funding decisions and public statements, to be structured around showing measurable progress on these seven goals.
From a communications perspective, the clarity and cohesion is admirable. A single, focused agenda provides a clear roadmap for government and stakeholders alike. This simplified narrative will make it easier for the government to tell a consistent story to Canadians about what it’s doing and why.
But, the tight priorities list – and the foregone specifics typically laid out in ministerial mandate letters – presents new challenges.
Communications and announcements will be tightly aligned to the framing set out by Carney’s administration, meaning less room for ministerial discretion or regional variation.
This approach is also likely to lead to bureaucratic uncertainty. Without specific, detailed mandate letters, departments may be unclear on how to prioritize or which minister is leading on a given issue. Stakeholders may also struggle to identify the right minister or department to engage on cross-cutting issues.
Ministries for which Carney’s priority list is less instructive may interpret their own mandates any number of ways (if at all), making it difficult for stakeholders to anticipate cabinet priorities on health care, mental health and addiction, social services and child welfare, and Canada’s climate commitments – to name a few.
The biggest concern for stakeholders should be that there will now be higher competition for attention. With only seven priorities, there’s less room for outside-the-box proposals or niche sectoral asks that don’t clearly align.
Cutting through the noise and communicating powerfully — especially in the media where you can apply pressure on the government — will be more important than ever.
Adapt to Win
If your organization is looking to secure program funding, pilot a partnership, influence policy, or hold shared public announcements, adapt to win the Carney government’s support.
Map directly to one or more of the seven priorities. Don’t assume the link is obvious. Frame and name your initiative to match and highlight the government’s stated goals.
Measure outcomes in terms of the priorities. Your work may have multiple benefits for Canadians. If, among those benefits, your work delivers jobs, reduces costs, advances international trade, challenges interprovincial barriers, builds housing, features public-private cooperation, or boosts competitiveness — that's where your performance indicators and success stories should be focused.
Use the government’s language. Mirror the phrasing of the seven priorities in your pitches, public communications, and policy submissions. Ministers are under pressure to show alignment with Carney’s direction. Help them connect the dots.
Final Thought
With this government, alignment is currency. Ministers will be measured on their ability to show results against these seven targets. The Texture team can shape narratives that work with Carney’s priority list to help ensure you and your project are a priority for his government.
Texture Communications is a battle-tested team of top political advisors and communicators. We do high-impact advocacy communications to transform executives into thought leaders across industries, from health care and Indigenous governments to mining, tech, and financial services.
When we give advice, we back it up with action. Our team moves quickly and with precision. Our work drives conversations, builds trust, and moves the needle in the media, in the boardroom, and with governments.
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