Justin Trudeau, at the beginning of each Parliament, would issue mandate letters to each of his cabinet ministers. The mandate letter would identify goals for that minister to accomplish, in his or her department.

Mark Carney issued just one mandate letter to his entire cabinet. It will be interesting to see whether the goals identified will be accomplished.

in talking to reporters, Mark Carney stated that he and his ministers, discussed,

 “how we can best deliver the major changes that are needed to overcome the many challenges that Canada currently faces.”

Priorities include establishing a new economic and security relationship with the United States. Carney has mentioned repeatedly that the old relationship with US is over. The US cannot be counted on as an automatic, reliable partner. At the same time, another priority is to strengthen relationships with reliable trading partners around the world. Mark Carney has an advantage here given his business background and his time as governor of the bank of England. He was in Rome last week having discussions with a number of European leaders. These were not hello how are you meetings, but getting into the details meetings.

Another priority that Carney has mentioned repeatedly is to reduce interprovincial trade barriers by July 1. He also wants to reduce housing costs for Canadians.

Carney has been off to a running start. Let’s see if his momentum can continue.

That’s all I have for today.