The more that I think about a recent Globe and Mail editorial (“Dear Liberals: It’s never too late to start governing”), and it is difficult not to think about it, for the flood of pre-campaign announcements in the past few weeks, the more I find myself inclined to disagree: actually, it is too late to start governing.

That is, not for the government to save itself—rather, that it’s bad enough for citizens to become cynical about their political process, but the government needs to at least maintain the pretence that it’s operating full-time and doing more than simply hoarding up transactional giveaways right before election day.

I don’t care what your polling says, build a narrative of competence by solving one problem at a time. That’s the way to deliver and win.