On Oct. 3, as the federal election campaign was underway, a judicial ruling here in Alberta caught my eye. It’s not in itself a major thing; it attracted some headlines mostly because it involves an extended rumination by Justice W.T. (Willie) deWit, the Canadian Olympic boxer turned respected criminal lawyer turned (in 2017) Alberta Queen’s Bench Justice. Metrics such as debt-to-GDP ratio and Parliamentary Budget Office pronouncements are, at least, widely accepted as having a restraining character. Of course we detect pervasive insincerity; of course we sense, increasingly, that our elections have something pathological about them.

Source: National Post October 21, 2019 21:33 UTC