It didn't have to be this way, Kathleen. You could have shown a bit of humility when you knew things were going south. You could have done like Dalton did when he realized not winning the next election was a no-brainer.

You could have quit months ago, paving the way for a leadership convention and maybe, just maybe, a fresh face, someone like the unctuous and vainglorious Yasir Naqvi could have won the leadership and created some distance from you and pulled off an election win and saved the great liberal party of Ontario.

But no, you even ignored the advice of former minister Greg Sorbara who's career spanned 30 years in politics as finance minister, Ontario Liberal party president and campaign chair. He told you last month you were dead in the water. It's not as if Sorbara had any animus towards you Kathleen. He lobbied for you to become leader and was on your transition team. You took the advice you wanted to hear, for example, from toady Deputy Premier Deb Matthews.

Another yes man, current Liberal campaign co-chair Tim Murphy said with a straight face that he talked with "lots of Liberals and not one of them wants her to go. Not a single one." Right, drink the Kool-aid.

Look at yourself in the mirror, Kathleen. You have less than 1/3 of Donald Trump's popular support. You're sitting at 11%. And you think he's a loser.

You've dragged your party down to 23% of decided and leaning voters. For months now you've been bribing the electorate with their own money in a spending frenzy. There's been a ton of new vote-getting spending. Free drugs, discounted energy, a huge hike in minimum wage and the list goes on...The cupboard's bare. And you keep insisting hubristically, Kathleen that all of this has nothing to do with the pending election.

Even firebrand OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas called the scope of the latest contract extension offer "unprecedented" and said he suspects it is related to the June 2018 election. "I'm kind of shocked the government actually made us any kind of an offer," Thomas said. "It's no secret that my union and myself, my executive board, we're always in a battle with the government...We're at odds with them on a lot of fronts." Heck, just take it and run.

There's an old legal expression that the "jury is never wrong." In this case, I'd say the voters are never wrong. They saw through the stink of your orgy of spending. They might have taken the goodies you were throwing out, but they weren't fooled by your cynical politics.

If an election were held today, the Liberals would be reduced to all of 9 seats. They're even in trouble in Toronto and the GTA where popular mayor John Tory is waging war against what he sees are Liberals'neglect of housing and transit.

I know you see yourself as some kind of rainmaker flying with the Gods and that you'll pull a miracle and be back as Premier, Kathleen. But this time you're going to have to be truly magical. Countless streams of puff pieces by the Star's Liberal-inresidence columnist Martin Regg Cohn that you walk on water just won't do it.