Mark Carney’s to-do list is short, but steep [Video]

Emerging from his cabinet’s first “planning forum” — what previous prime ministers would have called a cabinet “retreat” — on Tuesday evening, Mark Carney told reporters that his ministers had all been given a single mandate letter.

“It reflects a unified mission,” the prime minister said of his missive. “This one letter outlines the core priorities of Canada’s new government, reflecting the mandate that Canadians have given to us.”

Coming in at just under 800 words, Carney’s mandate letter contrasts in potentially interesting ways with the wordier epistles that his predecessor released in 2015. But however succinct, Carney’s letter also still makes clear the sizeable challenges and aims that are now laid out before this new government.

The issuing of mandate letters to cabinet ministers is not a new practice. But until Justin Trudeau decided to publicly post a set of letters for his new ministers in November 2015, the memos containing a minister’s official marching orders were kept confidential — seen only by the ministers themselves …