Prime Minister Mark Carney during a tour of Ottawa Fire Station 44 in his Nepean riding on Saturday.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press

Laurence B. Mussio is chair of the Long Run Institute and fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant. – Henri Queuille

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s budget survived its final confidence vote in November – narrowly. The parliamentary arithmetic that keeps whips awake at night highlights a dangerous irony: Mr. Carney, shaped by decades at central banks, operates on 20-year horizons. Yet he commands a federal machinery designed for stasis, flanked by a cabinet discovering firefighting zeal after a decade of playing with matches. His praetorians – skilled at political evisceration, not project delivery – have perfected the political quick-kill over economic transformation.

The test is whether this long-game architect can build while his crew remains addicted to the quick fix. We are witnessing Canada’s eternal bargain: grand visions compromised by immediate political necessity and the persistent gap between policy ambition and procurement reality that has plagued successive governments.

This reveals a deeper problem: a deficit in Canada’s “mnemonic capital” – our collective institutional memory. We are programmed for managing difference, not driving transformation. Every structural reform triggers........

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