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High office inescapably distances the incumbent from the experiences and contacts of everyday life, and the longer the tenure the greater the misalignment. There are only so many trips to Davos before the normal human mind exchanges the exertions of thought for the buzz of having Bono on speed dial and the even more orgasmic glories of Al Gore on hold.

Power is addictive, and few are the number who seek release from its insidious charms

The politician who sheds power in a timely manner, under the sway of his own judgment, unimpelled by the scorn of weary voters and not shamed into flight from scandals of his own devious devising or careless stewardship, is therefore a phoenix of his kind. Wall belongs in that contracted circle.

The soul which enters politics shrinks over time. Politics exerts an ever accumulating weight on those who practice it with honour, and there comes a moment in even the most promising career when the demands and compromises innate to its transactions overwhelms, or threatens to overwhelm, the principles of those who have embraced it. The wise few foresee that moment, when they pivot from agency to habit, from principle to practice, when the trades and concessions undermine the very accomplishments they were engaged in to achieve. And having foreseen it, leave when it threatens to arrive.

We saw in Alberta, for example, the great Progressive Conservative dynasty, whose very longevity was actually the force that brought it down. Too much time in office breeds a sense of ownership, insinuates a lotus sense of self-complacency, and a viral fury or arrogance. Nothing bloats the ego like being in charge, and nothing dulls one’s judgment or inflames contempt for the judgment of others as being in charge too long.