’Twas the night before Christmas and in the premier’s house, no electricity was whirring for her or her spouse.

Like hundreds of thousands of people, Premier Kathleen Wynne was hit by the ice storm’s mass power outage that struck a swath of the country from Hamilton to Quebec City.

Power went out at Wynne’s midtown house on Sunday and she resorted to candles and her fireplace to stay warm.

“There were a lot of candles on and we had to be very, very careful about that,” she said. “Our house was about 11 degrees last night when we got home and we got it up to about 13. So it was very cold.”

Things went on like that for the better part of three nights before the power came back in the wee hours of Christmas morning.

“Our neighbourhood, we had most of three nights without power. I know how difficult it is when you’re going into the third or fourth night, which is why I’m asking people if they can reach out to neighbours, please to do so.”

The premier recounted her experience while bringing a food donation to a city warming centre at Agincourt Community Centre in Scarborough on Christmas Day.

She cautioned people against bringing outside heaters, barbecues or generators into their houses for warmth.

“If a piece of equipment is meant for outdoors, please keep it outdoors because the dangers of carbon monoxide are very acute.”

The premier will be heading out of town to visit with her grandchildren for Christmas, she said.

“I hope everyone has an opportunity to be with friends or new friends and my experience of the warming centres is that people are being very good to one another and creating community. That’s what we do in times of stress.”

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