Defining leadership in Canadian public administration: an analysis of federal, provincial and territorial frameworks and models

What is it about?

This article compares leadership frameworks and related texts across Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial governments. It finds a broadly shared leadership vocabulary centred on strategy, relationships, public service values, change, and results, but also important differences in how jurisdictions structure and emphasize leadership expectations.

Featured Image

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Governments across Canada are increasingly investing in leadership development, organizational renewal, and public sector modernization, yet there has been little comparative research examining how leadership is formally defined across Canadian jurisdictions. Existing Canadian scholarship has focused largely on the federal government, leaving provincial and territorial leadership frameworks underexplored. By analyzing leadership models and competency frameworks across federal, provincial, and territorial governments, the article provides one of the first integrated cross-jurisdictional examinations of how leadership is conceptualized across the wider Canadian state. The article is also unique in treating leadership frameworks not simply as human resource tools, but as administrative artifacts that reveal what governments value, expect, and prioritize in public service leadership. The findings show that Canadian governments share a common leadership vocabulary centred on strategy, relationships, ethics, change, and results, while also demonstrating meaningful differences in how leadership is structured and interpreted institutionally. In doing so, the article connects leadership development to broader themes in public administration, including accountability, collaboration, innovation, governance complexity, and public service values.