Ontario is careening toward a summer election with Premier Dalton McGuinty’s refusal to pass a minority Liberal budget “gutted” by the NDP and Progressive Conservatives.

In a high-stakes news conference at Queen’s Park — where he used a teleprompter to appear more statesmanlike on TV — McGuinty said he is fed up with bending over backwards for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“I cannot let this happen,” the premier told reporters in the government caucus room on Friday. “The budget includes ideas proposed by both opposition parties, but the NDP and the PCs are putting their own narrow, partisan interests ahead of their province.

“If we cannot pass this budget we will take it to the people in a general election.”

At a separate news conference held minutes earlier, Horwath insisted she is being reasonable and does not want a summer election so soon after the Oct. 6 campaign.

“Making minority government work is hard work. But it won’t happen if the Liberals threaten to hit the campaign trail every time we hit a bump in the road,” she said.

McGuinty believed he had reached a deal with Horwath on April 23 to ensure the budget’s passage — and the government’s survival — in exchange for a new tax on people making more than $500,000 a year, among other amendments.

But at the finance committee on Thursday, the NDP and Tories used their 5-4 majority to remove five key “schedules” from the budget bill that the Liberals claim could cost the treasury billions of dollars.

These include: hamstringing the government from privatizing parts of ServiceOntario, the agency that delivers drivers’ licences, vehicle tags, health cards and a host of other things; changing contract arbitration for some public services; and revamping the Ministry of Natural Resources.

NDP MPP Gilles Bisson said his party was concerned by the threat to negotiating powers with public sector workers as well as the sweeping changes to statutes affecting to forestry sustainability, provincial parks, and endangered species.

Under an agreement last month by all three parties, the budget bill must go to a final vote Wednesday.

Because McGuinty cannot abide by the opposition changes, the Liberals either have to vote against their own budget or he would have to advise Lt.-Gov. David Onley that his government had lost the confidence of the house.

Although Onley could ask Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak to try to form a coalition with Horwath, it is more likely Ontarians would be thrust into a July 19 election costing $150 million and coming just nine months after the last vote.

For the Liberals, who are behind in the polls, it could be a difficult campaign against the backdrop of the ORNGE air ambulance scandal, tense contract talks with teachers and doctors, and demands for a two-year wage freeze for all 1.3 million Ontario public servants.

The premier pointedly left open the possibility of proroguing the house, a stall tactic that worked for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government in 2008 when it looked on the brink of defeat.

“We’re going to do everything we can to explore all of our options,” said McGuinty, arguing that he is above the political fray.

“I have a higher responsibility to protect the health and well-being of this economy.”

Liberal campaign chair Greg Sorbara said his party is reluctant but ready to contest another election.

“We will hope up until the last minute that Andrea Horwath changes her mind and keeps her word,” said Sorbara, warning “she will pay the price for casting Ontario into an early election.”

While McGuinty and Horwath were at the barricades at Queen’s Park, Hudak was touring Hamilton.

“People are tired of the soap opera at Queen’s Park,” said the Tory leader, whose MPPs stunned many observers Thursday by voting with the NDP and against some core PC principles on matters like privatization.

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Despite the machinations, Hudak predicted “the Liberals and the NDP are going to pass this budget.”

After the last campaign, the Grits and the New Democrats each owe less than $3 million while the Tories have a $4.2-million debt.

There are 52 Liberal MPPs in the 107-member legislature — excluding Speaker Dave Levac — and 36 Tories and 17 New Democrats. There is a vacancy in Kitchener-Waterloo.

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