Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne is putting the spotlight on NDP rival Andrea Horwath for vowing never to use back-to-work legislation if the surging New Democrats are elected June 7.

“Their plan is not workable and people need to examine that,” Wynne said Wednesday in Toronto before flying north to shore up Liberal ridings in Sudbury and Thunder Bay with two weeks until voting day.

Wynne’s government was criticized by the Progressive Conservatives for waiting too long before ordering striking community college staff back to work last fall when the term was in jeopardy for students. She said a strike at York University would be over now if Horwath’s MPPs had not objected, and “York students could have been back at school.”

At Seneca College, Horwath blamed the strikes on Wynne, saying the Liberal government “squeezed” funding for colleges and universities, forcing them to resort to more part-time and casual instructors, leading to labour strife.

“I’m not going to take any advice from Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals, who for years now have been toe-to-toe with the doctors creating a lack of stability for patients,” said Horwath, who has increasingly become the target of attacks from the Liberals and PC Leader Doug Ford as her standing in the polls has improved.

The latest Ipsos poll for Global News has Horwath neck-and-neck with a declining Ford, with the Liberals trailing.

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Horwath staked out her opposition to back-to-work legislation — even in school strikes — in a meeting Tuesday with the Star’s editorial board, saying “it is very much against our values” and that workers should be free to engage in collective bargaining.

Wynne said she’s glad to see New Democrat policies being put under a microscope.

“Goodness knows there’s been scrutiny about what we’ve done,” she said. “That same scrutiny is now being applied to the NDP, and that’s as it should be.”

Ottawa-area Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod followed Horwath to the Seneca College event, where the NDP leader announced a plan to convert student loans to grants and end student interest payments, which would cost $561 million in the first year.

MacLeod mocked Horwath’s comment, made in jest to the Star’s editorial board, that she would need “good training programs” to form a cabinet if elected premier.

“I don’t think it’s a laughing matter,” said MacLeod, who also raised concerns about “radical extremist” views of five NDP candidates, including one who opposes poppies on Remembrance Day and another who is against mining.

“The next winner is going to have to put together a cabinet and that cabinet is going to have to reduce hydro rates ... (and) open up our economy,” the Ottawa-area MPP added.

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“These are serious questions that require scrutiny.”

MacLeod defended controversial London West Conservative candidate Andrew Lawton, a former radio talk show host who has blamed mental health issues for anti-Islamic and misogynist remarks he made.

“He has disavowed everything he said during that period,” said MacLeod, who would not say if she would be comfortable serving with Lawton in a Ford cabinet should the PCs win the election.

“I’m not comfortable predicting that I’ll be in a cabinet,” she told reporters.

Horwath said her cabinet remark was made with a chuckle at the end of an hour-long grilling by reporters and editors.

“My biggest concern is the Tories need to get a funny bone … I have a sense of humour and I tend to use it,” she added, saying MacLeod should be more concerned her party hasn’t yet released a costed platform for voters to scrutinize.

“There will be a costed platform … in a couple of weeks,” MacLeod told reporters.

Wynne, who has said her governing party’s most recent budget forms “the core” of its platform, suggested Ford may be afraid to map out a plan she claimed would be defined by reductions to government services and programs.

“We know from some of the slogans and the things that he’s thrown out that if he is going to move on those things that he’s going to have to make cuts across government,” she said in Sudbury on Wednesday. “But we have no idea where those cuts would come from…If people are going to make an informed decision, they need to have specifics about what he’s proposing.”

The vote is in 14 days. The three party leaders hold their final televised debate on Sunday.

With files from Canadian Press

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