This is a cautionary tale for Canada, where progressive politicians are fond of big ideas that will fix (fill in social problem here). It should resonate throughout Ontario, where the Liberal government’s two signature policies – to transform energy and early education – have turned into expensive failures. It should be studied very carefully by the two progressive federal parties, who may find that voters are increasingly skeptical of government promises to cure whatever ails us.

The truth is that no matter how many smart people are in charge, governments can’t run things very well. Here in Canada, they run education and health-care systems that are quite expensive, but no more than pretty good. (That’s the Canadian way. U.S. health care and education span the extremes, from superb to awful, while we’re content to settle in the mediocre middle.) The basic difference between progressives and conservatives (not Republican or Harper conservatives, but the Burkean kind) is that progressives are convinced that rational planners with good intentions and advanced degrees can transform society. Conservatives are more doubtful. They’d be happy if governments just collected taxes and fixed the roads.

Mr. Obama lost the kids because he promised the moon and couldn’t deliver. The kids know that even Facebook and Instagram can’t fix what’s wrong with Obamacare. So now he’s trying to change the channel. Now he’s going to tackle economic inequality, which he calls “the defining challenge of our time.” But this time, the kids have tuned out.