THERE are elections where the victors are swept into power on a wave of popular enthusiasm. Not in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, on June 12th, where voters held their noses and re-elected the centre-left Liberals despite a series of spending scandals chalked up over more than a decade in power. Kathleen Wynne, who took over as Liberal leader in January 2013, managed to distance herself enough from her predecessor to blunt calls for political change. She is the first woman and first openly gay premier elected in the province. Although the Liberals’ share of the popular vote barely budged from the last general election, the distribution of those votes changed enough to allow the Liberals to transform their minority government into a majority. The centre-right Progressive Conservatives, led by Tim Hudak, came a distant second; he promptly stepped down as leader. The left-leaning New Democrats, whose leader Andrea Horwath caused the election when she withdrew her party’s support from the then minority Liberal government, no longer hold the balance of power.

What happens in Ontario matters less now than it did before the western provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia began their long oil- and gas-fuelled economic boom. Yet it still represents 40% of Canada’s GDP, is home to almost 14m of Canada’s 35m people, and is both the financial and manufacturing heartland of the country. The majority Liberal government will provide stability. But keeping the same party at the helm may not be the best way to reinvigorate the provincial economy.

In its annual report on Canada released on June 11th, the OECD fretted about Ontario’s large budget deficit, expected to reach C$12.5 billion ($11.5 billion) in the current fiscal year, and noted the growing disparities between the oil-rich western provinces and Ontario and Quebec, whose manufacturers are struggling with new competitors and an over-valued dollar. The Liberal solution is to spend more money on infrastructure, services and job programmes (big-ticket items include a C$1 billion road to a remote chromite deposit in the north).

Ms Wynne owes much of her victory to the fact that she offended fewer voters than her rivals. Mr Hudak’s pledge to cut the civil service provoked a backlash from public-service unions, which paid for anti-Progressive Conservative ads, and those who questioned whether his austerity measures would work. Ms Horwath disappointed high-profile supporters when her original withdrawal of support for the Liberals killed a budget that had been stuffed full of measures meant to keep her party onside. As head of a majority government, Ms Wynne no longer has to placate the New Democrats. So it will not be a surprise if a few of the more expensive baubles are dropped when the new provincial government reintroduces its 2014 budget.