Don't vote, it only encourages them

Ontario's minority Liberal Government, faced with the certain defeat of a budget it introduced only last week, has called a provincial election for June 12.  The attitude of most of the electorate is well summed-up in this quite brilliant cartoon from Sunday's edition of the Toronto Star:

For those of you unfamiliar with Ontario politics -- and aren't you the lucky ones? -- the three "runners", from left to right, are:

*Andrea Horwath of the supposedly left-leaning NDP.  Her party has been propping up the Liberals for the last couple of years but has decided to pull the plug now, even though the aforementioned budget was very progressive.  Her party may well pay a heavy price on voting day.

* Tim Hudak of the Conservatives.  Keen on the type of union-bashing that Margaret Thatcher loved so much, and campaigning on the need to get the province's deficit in order -- i.e., to cut social programs.

* Kathleen Wynne, the Liberal leader and current premier. She seems like a very nice person, but she can't escape the long shadow of her scandal-plagued predecessor, the awful Dalton McGuinty.  Based on their track record in recent years, her party couldn't organize a poker game in a casino.

It's going to be a tedious few weeks, and it's going to cost tens of millions of dollars.  And the likely outcome?  Based on the opinion polls, it'll be another minority Liberal government!