diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/__init__.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/__init__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 02de4115d7f8..000000000000
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/__init__.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-try:
-    __import__('pkg_resources').declare_namespace(__name__)
-except ImportError:
-    pass  # must not have setuptools