Minister or institutional head: Canada.ca design
Last updated: 2024-04-03
The Minister or institutional head pattern identifies the relevant Minister(s) or head(s) for a department, agency or organization. It provides links to the official bio for an institution’s minister(s), associate minister(s), or institutional head, and may also include a headshot or links to mandate letters and briefing materials.

On this page
When to use
The Minister or institutional head pattern is mandatory on an institutional landing page.
What to avoid
Don’t use this pattern on pages where it is not relevant to the main task(s) of the page.
Content and design
Find content and design specifications and visual examples.
Content specifications
Use the appropriate heading for the section, for example:
- Minister
- President
- Parliamentary secretary
- Associate minister
- Ombudsman
- Management
The following elements are mandatory for each head of an institution:
-
The minister or institutional head’s honorific (“The Honourable”) and first and last name
- These link to a ministerial profile page (see Ministerial profile pages)
- The institutional head’s official title
The following elements are optional for each head of an institution:
- Image
-
Links:
- Mandate letter
- Briefing book
- Material relevant to the institutional head
Design specifications
- Background: white
-
Name and title of institutional head (linked)
- Standard Canada.ca link colours
- Standard Canada.ca body font family and size
-
Title of institutional head
- Standard Canada.ca link colours
- Standard Canada.ca body font family and size. Has a small class which is 87% of the font size (body is 20px)
-
Optional links
- Text uses standard Canada.ca styles
-
Use a list
- Has a small class which is 87% of the standard body size
- Images: 200px by 250px
- Layout: 2 columns with image to the left and bullets to the right in large and medium screen, single column in small screen
Visual examples

Image description: minister or institutional head - large screen
The Minister or institutional head pattern appears in 2 columns with the heading “Minister(s)”.
The first column presents a placeholder for an institutional head’s image on the left. The dimensions for the image are 200px x 250px. Information on the right includes:
- The Honourable [Minister name] (link)
- [Official title] (text)
- List item: Mandate letter [optional] (link)
- List item: Briefing book [optional] (link)
The second column presents a placeholder for an institutional head’s image on the left. The dimensions for the image are 200px x 250px. Information on the right includes:
- The Honourable [Minister name] (link)
- [Official title] (text)
- List item: Mandate letter [optional - single item] (link)

Image description: minister or institutional head - small screen
The Minister or institutional head pattern appears in 1 column and has 2 items with the heading “Minister(s)”.
The first element begins with a title with the link "The Honourable [Minister name]" followed by a space reserved for the image with the prescribed dimensions of 200 x 250 pixels. Below the image is the text [Official title]. It is followed by a bulleted list with the following two linked items:
- Mandate letter [optional]
- Briefing book [optional]
The second element begins with a linked title "The Honourable [Minister name]" followed by a space reserved for the image with the prescribed dimensions of 200 x 250 pixels. Below the image is the text [Official title]. It is followed by the following link element:
- Mandate letter [optional - single element]
How to implement
Find working examples and code for implementing the Minister or institutional head pattern.
GCweb (WET) theme implementation reference
The implementation reference includes how to configure elements of the design system.
Implementations
Determine what best suits the type of page you're creating.
GC-AEM
For the Government of Canada Adobe Experience Manager (AEM):
Research and rationale
Consult policy rationale.
Policy rationale
The Minister or institutional head pattern is required on the following mandatory template:
Latest changes
- Added guidance to support updates to the institutional landing page
Page details
- Date modified: