Mark Carney’s blueprint for revitalizing the economy, released as the Liberal leadership contest enters its final weeks, can’t help but disappoint voters hoping for a shift away from the high-spending, big-debt approach of the Trudeau years.

Carney’s outline does pledge to alter the accounting process. In place of one big pie to divvy up among myriad supplicants, the former central bank governor would split the pot in two. More effort would go into controlling “operating” spending, which covers ongoing expenses such as pensions, benefits, payrolls, equipment and the like. Spending on capital costs, used to build railways, ports, transport routes and major infrastructure projects, would continue to balloon.