(NYTIMES) - A great and mostly unknown prophet of our time is Michael Young, whose book, The Rise Of The Meritocracy, published way back in 1958, both coined the term in its title and predicted, in its fictional vision of the 21st century, meritocracy's unhappy destination: not the serene rule of the deserving and talented, but a society where a ruling class selected for intelligence but defined by arrogance and insularity faces a roiling populism whose grievances shift but whose anger at the new class order is a constant.

This year it's Canada's turn to live inside Young's somewhat dystopian scenario, set in the 2030s but here ahead of schedule.