McSpendy Wins!

It isn't exactly a commanding mandate, though, since he's one seat shy of a majority, and only 48 percent of those eligible to cast a ballot bothered to do so--the most pathetic turn out for a provincial election ever! On the bright side, the Liberals' cynical ploy to win a heavily-Jewish Thornhill by running high profile ex-Official Jew Bernie Farber didn't work. No doubt Dalton'll find something in an unelected capacity (next head honcho of Ontario's "human rights" racket, perhaps?) for Bernie to do.

Update: The Globe and Mail claims that "the Ford factor" (that is, a backlash against Toronto's conservative mayor) is behind the Liberal win, but I think it's pretty clear that had the Tories had a more dynamic leader, one who was willing to differentiate himself from the Spendyholics and thereby motivate those concerned with the bottom line to turn out and vote, he could have easily won the day. In that sense, it wasn't a Ford factor, but a Hudak one.

Update: A song for the victorious Spendyholics:

To everything (spend, spend, spend)
There is a season (spend, spend, spend)
And a time to waste our cash
On stupid projects.
A time for school prayers,
A time for hot airs,
A time for tax,
A time to spend to the max,
A time to cast away dough,
A time to piss away dough forever...

Update: Ontario's previous failed Conservative leader, John Tory (who blew it when he foolishly opted to back public funding for religious schools), says all will be copacetic so long as McSpendy, um, tweaks a few things. He's wrong, of course. And the problem won't even be righted when (if) a Conservative finally gets his act together and the Liberals are sent packing because by then we'll be so far in the hole it'll be nearly impossible to dig our way out.