In the 10 National Hockey League seasons starting from 1940, Canadian teams won the Stanley Cup seven times. In the following decade they won it six more times: 13 wins in 20 seasons. In the 31 seasons since 1993, Canadian cup wins add up to zilch.

What’s that got to do with the federal budget promised for November? Not much. Except that Canada has changed since the Second World War. There were six NHL teams in 1940, against 32 today. They played 48 games against each other, today it’s 82. The playoffs consisted of two rounds, 14 games max. Today they last forever and could soon stretch into July.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has more than once compared the task Canada faces today to the one the country confronted in the war years and after. Days after the April election he pledged “th

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